Twenty-one games into this NBA season, Anthony Davis sat inside a room that had been repurposed for news conferences inside the-then Staples Center when he boldly predicted the Lakers were capable of winning 10 in a row. Maybe even more.
That would change the narrative, Davis said, shut up the critics and prove that the attention paid to his team would be earned and not merely given.
“We’re the Lakers,” he said.
At that point of the season, being these Lakers wasn’t such a cursed proposition. The hope wasn’t so abstract, the future not so dark and the clock not close to running out on them.
Fifty-one games into the season, that’s all changed even if the setting really hasn’t.
Sitting inside a room that used to house a Zamboni near the loading dock at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Davis was reminded of his prediction. And this time, he wasn’t so bold.
After suggesting that the upcoming All-Star break in the middle of February would be a good chance for the team to get away and reset, Davis said he still thinks the future for the Lakers has more in it than disappointment.
“I still believe that we got a good team. We just haven’t been all the way healthy for our team. I mean, all our players. LeBron [James] is now out. I just came back. I think the most frustrating part is that we can’t finish games. We’ve had a lot of games that we had won and teams come back and beat us,” Davis said. “…But I still have belief, man. We’re a good team. No matter what happens in the regular season, if we get into the playoffs, we’re a good team. And I still believe that.”
Maybe he does. Maybe saying it helps reinforce that belief. Or maybe Davis, like anyone else who has watched the Lakers perform below expectations, knows that the Lakers are barely closer to figuring out their problems than they were in late November.
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Following their loss to the Hawks — a game where the team opened with the best shooting half of any team in the NBA this season — the Lakers are three games below .500. James is injured. Russell Westbrook is still trying to fit in. And the Lakers still feel so incomplete — partly because injuries are a problem and partly because offseason moves haven’t paid off.
The lack of players who positively impact the Lakers on offense and defense has been a near-fatal flaw. Frank Vogel has swung between more offensive-inclined lineups and more defensive lineups. Neither have been consistently effective, with the Lakers committing more to small-ball lineups with Davis and James at center because any other choice handcuffs the offense too much (and, frankly, doesn’t necessarily move the needle on defense).
And while the Lakers haven’t let the on-court problems make the team seem like a miserable bunch, it’s easy to see that frustrations are starting to pile on.
Players and coaches have criticized the Lakers for their effort. Sunday, Malik Monk was the latest to see the team was too casual. Westbrook and Dwight Howard have made the same claim after the team was walloped in Denver. Vogel has openly talked about it. And privately, players have expressed some anger that the team hasn’t been able to figure this out.
And there’s Westbrook, who began this trip fresh off a benching in the fourth against the Pacers. He responded by playing well, averaging 22 points on 53.5% shooting with 6.8 rebounds and 6.7 assists.
“Never give up or give in,” Westbrook said.
But after James injured his knee, the Lakers lost three in a row despite his strong games — more confirmation that the problems with Westbrook on the Lakers are even greater than how he plays. It’s that his presence on the roster meant three capable rotation players had to be sent out, leaving the Lakers without the financial flexibility to replace them.
It’ll be on Westbrook to sustain, if not even add, to his level of play in the last two weeks once James comes back, the team needing its three best players to be on the same page as quickly as possible.
Maybe the Lakers can pull off some magic before the Feb. 10 trade deadline, but with limited resources, it’s more likely that they’ll be lost to shop the buyout market for help — and not the kind of place where teams generally make high impact moves.
The team has five games to figure it out heading into the deadline and another two before the break, but there hasn’t been much to suggest that they will.
The results, the questions and the answers after these games are all the same. Even the rooms, the Lakers on this predictable path towards mediocrity until they change it.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.