part two of the nba 2020-21 anything but regular season

I'm not sold this year but it's true they haven't had a ton of games where the whole team is healthy

i would be pretty surprised if AD gets back to top form this season and i think they need that above all.

yeah i mean they need them both to be playing good, its a very top heavy team

theyre the top defensive team this year! cmon bron and brow just came back from long layoffs and arent up to speed everyone is over reacting, the big threat to the lakers chances is bron and or brow just not getting fully healthy

― lag∞n, Monday, May 3, 2021 10:33 AM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

also they just need to sit drummond and roll with marc and trez. maybe drummond in spot minutes. also the vibes just arent the same this season for them.

AD has looked quite lazy since his return. might just be adding a bit here or there to see what his leg can handle but hes looked pretty disengaged.

yeah drummond should be strictly for bench scoring his defense is too bad

they really got great minutes from Mcgee and Howard last year on the front line and Rondo was huge for them as a floor general.

Losing Dennis right now seems not ideal

fatigue obvs a big factor for the lakers no one has ever played this many games in a year before, ad could easily just be totally cooked right now, thats why i was thinking it was good he got time off with the injury but it might not be enough, have read some stuff on exhaustion in athletes and it can lead to some surprisingly long down cycles, bron we always assume will be super human but he is in fact technically human and 36 years old so who knows

they really got great minutes from Mcgee and Howard last year on the front line and Rondo was huge for them as a floor general.

― (•̪●) (carne asada), Monday, May 3, 2021 1:48 PM (thirty-seven seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

i like this years roster better on paper but its true that last years just kinda worked out

i mean, every team in the west is at least as flawed as the lakers. i think their main issue is just going to be the demand of the playoffs on AD’s achilles especially if it gets into KDish territory. i could see him sitting out the finals or something instead of pushing himself until his heel explodes. increasingly feels like one of the top 3 teams in the east have the best shot at winning the title but you could make arguments against any other team in the west as easy as you can the lakers

xps marc is pouting about his playing time and role, too.

hmm when was the last time a team that was a bottom 10 defense in the regular season (nets) made the finals?

oh huh the last 2 lebron cavs teams were

those teams at least had the benefit of bron turning up the D in the offs, nets are just going to have to plain outscore everyone

one gets the sense the lakers figured "once we're in the playoffs, we know what to do" so something of a case of moving with the ball before the pass was delivered

yeah historically its pretty rare and the only one i can find that's won the finals is the 2001 lakers which might be a weird fluke since they were a good defensive team in 2000 and 2002

i don’t think the nets are going to win the title they have a team that has never played together, who are also all hurt, a coach that has never coached in the playoffs, they only try on one side of the floor, and there are two other teams in the conference who tate as legitimate contenders. lots of red flags that ppl are going to ignore and then be like “hmm we should’ve seen this one coming”

yup

yeah historically its pretty rare and the only one i can find that's won the finals is the 2001 lakers which might be a weird fluke since they were a good defensive team in 2000 and 2002

― ciderpress, Monday, May 3, 2021 2:04 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

one of the alltime great coasting seasons, ended up losing only the one playoff game where iverson went nuts

agreed

i do think philly is clearly real this year though, for the first time in the embiid era

i still dont trust them! also embiids 3 point shooting coming back to earth is going to make defending them a whole lot easier

agreed tho that this is the best team theyve had

they need someone else to KO the bucks though

Reporting with @RamonaShelburne: Lakers star LeBron James is expected to sit out vs. Denver tonight to rest his right ankle, sources tell ESPN. James re-aggravated the ankle in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s loss to Toronto. Lakers have lost 6 of 7 games.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 3, 2021

The lakers came out so flat in the second half of last night’s game that it looked like they were trying to get benched

whatre you doing lebron

Dennis Schroder claims he and LeBron James are the only Lakers players not to be COVID-19 vaccinated yet.https://t.co/6EYeruB13q

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) May 3, 2021

hooo boy that's gonna be a thing

like.......................................................................... what the hell

bron didn’t get vaccinated? wtf

he already telegraphed that but it fucking sucks

yah when he was asked if he was gonna get it months back he was like thats a personal decision between me and my family or something like that.

What a dick

Among other things not getting vaccinated will turn into a circus now

boycott lebron imo

he's kind of a weirdo but i always remind myself given how he basically grew up in the spotlight he should probably be an even bigger weirdo

sorry lebron is canceled

the marvel and nba thing is going on right now on this dubs v pels game

This marvel stuff makes me want to smoke crack

yah its bad

Another pathetic defensive performance from the Pelicans, in a must win game

i wonder how many players are skipping the vax in season to avoid dealing w the symptoms but lebron just sat out for like a month and a half so he doesn’t have an excuse beyond being morally opposed to the vaccination

anytime someone starts talking about "that's a decision about what's best for our family" shit like that my spider sus sense goes off the meter

yup

steph just abusing this defense

Zion Williamson gets a smoke trail on an airball 😂 pic.twitter.com/6cSVHRznbI

— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) May 3, 2021

Mo Bamba really made the most of the Vucevic trade, happy to see this after his covid battle

Biggest game of Lonzo Ball's career immediately after publicly saying his goal is a future all-star nod... 3-18 and most turnovers on his team lol, yikes. Basically sunk the Pels last sec playoff push by himself tonight :(

might explain some things

Westbook just revealed that he played with a torn quad earlier this season.

Wow.

— Ben Mehić (@BenMehicNBA) May 4, 2021

oh