There is no where to look at these Lakers. Whatever the prism, whatever we use to analyze these people with some kind of objectivity, the manifest reality is that the Los Angeles team does not raise its head.
And that, when it seems to emerge from the shadows and position itself within a streak that allows them to forget what they have lived and focus on what they are going to experience to be different, they fall back into fainting, absurdity and ineffectiveness.
It is a question of attitude more than of game, almost of idiocy, of a total lack of ambition and an inertia that cannot change as the games go by and we are already over the first third of the season. Seventh, 13-13, few hints of improvement and, above all, a sovereign collapse every time it seems that they are something like a team.
Good game against the Celtics, horrendous conra the grizzlies. And so, unfortunately, all the time.
The defeat was horrendous, but also logical. Logical because the Grizzlies are now a team better: 15-11 for the 13-13 of the Lakers, anchored in mediocrity, in the most absolute nothing.
Logic because he who does not defend absolutely and does not take care of the ball in attack usually loses. Even against an opponent who is missing his best player (Ja Morant), a major agitator like Dillon Brooks and two rotation pieces (Kyle Anderson and Brandon Clarke).
That list of casualties, and that the Grizzlies played back to back after the Mavericks ended their hot streak, still only points to the Lakers, common suspects. That tonight they play in Oklahoma City, a game with morbid because they lost, absolutely resonant, his previous two games against the Thunder.
It has been more than a month since the second game and it is surprising (or not) how little things have changed in the Los Angeles team.
Everyone has noticed. Also Shaquille O’Neal, analyst at the TNT and one of the most authoritative voices (or less, actually) to talk about the best league in the world.
To his gags and his criticisms with Charles Barkley about current generations, a fine line of light appears from time to time, a moment of lucidity in which he says something with which the vast majority of public opinion agrees, that place in the one who wins and loses the battles that decide the wars.
And the former center of Magic, Lakers, Heat, Suns, Cavs and Celtics has been in charge of making very clear what he thinks of a team adrift that, beyond merely sporting sensations, lacks the hunger for victory and the desire to win.
In statements made on The Big Podcast With Shaq and collected by the Lakers Daily medium, Shaquille said that he was not going to go to a Staples Center any more, which will soon change its name. And, initially, he argued that this new nomenclature would be the reason for his absence.
However, Nischelle Turner, who was holding the conversation with Shaq, squeezed him assuring that he would return to the track. There, one of the greatest legends in basketball history exploded: “I’m not going back. Who wants to go see those people play?”
In addition, O’Neal assured that he would support another California team, the Warriors, who are 21-4 and are the best team in the NBA. With Tephen Curry at the helm, of course.
The Lakers are in a delicate situation, but the excuses are over despite the fact that LeBron has only played 14 of the team’s 26 possible games.
And, although there is time to rectify the situation, Shaq believes that this is a remote possibility and that in the case of purple and gold, they cannot win a seventh place, the one they occupy right now in a Western Conference whose positions fluctuate every day shamelessly.
And where there is supreme equality, more for the low level shown by practically all the teams than for anything else. Constant difficulties, injuries that cannot be stopped, questioning of the stars and the bench, aging squad.
All that is a lot. But attitude is what the Lakers are most criticized for. And that’s what can cause Shaquille to stop seeing them. Shaquille and, of course, many more.