Are we even contenders this year?

[Leor_77]

I'm seriously starting to doubt it. Blowout after blowout at home. Losses to bad teams. I understand what happened last year, but I'm not convinced at all that we can win a championship without home court advantage.

[Optms]

No, this game convinced me we aren't winning it this year. If it were me, I'd just pack it in and trade our most valuable assets while the stock on everyone is at a max high.

GTFO.

[KB24Gold]

This is the Lakers, of course we are still contenders. How bout they remove the "off" switch and keep it on at ALL **** TIMES.

[Cookin Baskets]

Don't over react to the game. I take like a grain of salt, Lakers did not bring anything close to their A game. Playoff games Lakers will be way tougher in the playoffs. A regular season is tiring to the Lakers. Heat are still trying to prove their great. Lakers need to play with more energy but being back to back champs makes you less motivated to win in the regular season. Of course they are only team in the west that could knock off the lakers are the spurs.

[SKSK]

Yeah you guys are but that's if Dallas chokes again in the playoffs

[Jetset]

No its all over we should scrap the team now. Kobe is in so much of a decline I doubt we could get Sheldon Williams and a 2nd for him now.

[Wavy Q]

smh

[crazyeights]

We're not contending, yet.

[Don Ford]

C'mon, inconsistency in the regular season is just the nature of this Laker team. Let's not start these 'sky is falling' posts like they did on the Heat board when they went through their struggles earlier.

The Lakers are absolutely a contender, it's just a matter of time before they get things turned around.

[Anklebreaker702]

No, this game convinced me we aren't winning it this year. If it were me, I'd just pack it in and trade our most valuable assets while the stock on everyone is at a max high.

GTFO.

Fixed These types of posts crack me up not even 40 games into the season. Yes we should have shown way more effort but this is a major over reaction.

[Anklebreaker702]

Yeah you guys are but that's if Dallas chokes again in the playoffs

We don't need Dallas to choke. All we need to do is play the way we're capable of playing.

[Optms]

No, this game convinced me we aren't winning it this year. If it were me, I'd just pack it in and trade our most valuable assets while the stock on everyone is at a max high.

GTFO.

Fixed These types of posts crack me up not even 40 games into the season. Yes we should have shown way more effort but this is a major over reaction.

I didn't think it would be necessary to add the green font after being so rash about it.

[semi-sentient]

We're still contenders, but I wouldn't go as far as calling us the favorites at this point. The Spurs, Mavericks, and Celtics are all teams that I'd bet on this year before the Lakers.

I said last season that once Dallas develops chemistry that they would be a force, and sure enough that's looking to be the case. Adding Chandler to fortify their FC certainly didn't hurt. They are perfectly suited to take us on.

The same goes for the Spurs. They never really fell off, but now they are healthy and playing the way everyone expected last season (only better) when they acquired Jefferson and McDyess. They are hungrier than ever and you can tell by their body language that they mean business this year. I would put my money on them coming out of the West this year if they are healthy.

The Celtics look downright nasty this year, and their FC is going to give us major problems. I don't think we can beat them this year if we meet up, to be honest, but you never really know.

I think we have our work cut out for us. Like Magic said in the post-game interview, we're 3 or 4 steps slower and it really shows. We can't keep hiding the fact that Fisher is the worst PG in the league. At some point it's going to really cost us. Then you have Artest who gives us nothing on offense most nights and STILL doesn't understand the triangle. Kobe is definitely slowing down as well, and with our interior not able to clean up after our perimeter players they are really getting exposed this year. Drew will fix some of that once he's back in the starting lineup, but he's incredibly unreliable out there and even he looks slower each season that he comes back from injury.

What's been troubling these past two games is that our offense has been completely shut down, and realistically, it's probably because we've played nothing but garbage defenses all year long that made us look a lot better than we really are (the Bucks and Heat are both excellent defensive teams). The bench has been able to provide that extra punch but our starters are pretty much having to play 3 on 5 most nights. That's not going to fly in the playoffs when teams start really focusing on shutting down Kobe and Gasol.

It's not like any of this should come as a shock to any of us though. Teams around the league are getting better and hungrier, and we're getting older and more complacent. Our run has got to end at some point. It would be nice to win another one this year, but I think we're nearing the end of this little mini-dynasty that we've established. We'll see what happens this year in the playoffs because we still have time to click and be a dominate team, but I'm going to lower my expectations for the team this year.

[Kalidogg24]

Lock and Bann

[Optms]

I ain't buying the Spurs or Dallas, Semi. Imo, our only legitimate threats in the West (I might be alone here) are Utah and Oklahoma.

Utah's addition in Jefferson shows promise to me. They looked really good against our team in our earlier match up. And of course with Williams, its a given we'll have no answer for him here. This is a team with a bunch of eager guys ready to knock us off. Probably more so than any team out West.

Oklahoma is a threat, too. Durant will pose so many problems if he continues to grow n' develop as the season progresses. This IS a really dangerous high tempo energy team with depth that isn't going to bow down quite easily. I sometimes concern myself that with some added growth coupled with our aging team, they will soon be too much for us to handle. Another really hungry club. It may come earlier rather than later.

Dallas? SA? Eh, these teams are done to be quite honest. You're gonna require a lot fire power to halt us once we'll get into high gear. Dallas lacks that. I'm not buying this team as a threat at all. The Spurs core looks nice, but Duncan has regressed way to much to carry them for 7 games in a series with our bigs parked right under him the whole time. Meh, either way, you have a point. I love our team in the long haul of the season, but we might have to lower our expectations just a little here. The west is still really deep.

[Leor_77]

Lock and Bann

***EDIT- don't worry about peoples spelling and worry about learning the rules about personal attacks on this forum.
snaq***
I realize now that this thread was not a good idea to post, as I was frustrated and extremely pissed off directly after the loss. The fact of the matter is that we completely looked out-CLASSED in that game. Execution and hustle/energy aside, they looked like they unequivocally had the better players on the court. The infamously soft Bosh outplayed our entire front line, and Wade/Lebron outplayed Kobe and everyone else on the team. I'm gonna give this team more time to gel, but time is running out quickly to secure home court with each additional loss.

[Optms]

This isn't the first time our club has looked out-classed, you know. Especially on Christmas. I think we all have to keep that in memory.

We started out the season on fire, and now? Bleh. Little fire these last couple of weeks. I think we just have the give our guys the benefit of the doubt here even though its tough to do. We'll be okay when it matters.

[Gek]

LOL GTFO.

[Kalidogg24]

Lock and Bann

Check your spelling, dumb ass.

I realize now that this thread was not a good idea to post, as I was frustrated and extremely pissed off directly after the loss. The fact of the matter is that we completely looked out-CLASSED in that game. Execution and hustle/energy aside, they looked like they unequivocally had the better players on the court. The infamously soft Bosh outplayed our entire front line, and Wade/Lebron outplayed Kobe and everyone else on the team. I'm gonna give this team more time to gel, but time is running out quickly to secure home court with each additional loss.

hahahahahahah

U MAD!!!!!


What are you some English teacher?

Lock and Ban

There you go. Feel Better?

As for the time is running out to chase HCA comment.

We got 52 games left in the season!!!! LOL




You create this thread and you call me a dumbass?

[dockingsched]

chill out man^^^


anyway, lakers just suck on xmas. getting old. we'll see in june.