Lakers, Celtics face dire situations ahead of clash
WHEN this season began, both the Los Angeles Lakers nor the Boston Celtics probably thought their clash scheduled this Saturday would hold a little more significance.
The Celtics were coming off a stellar 55-27 season with a team flush with both veterans and young talent, and led by superstar Kyrie Irving. They returned nearly their entire rotation while re-adding Gordon Hayward, who missed nearly of all last season with a fractured tibia. No team outside of the Golden State Warriors could boast a stronger starting five from top to bottom.
The Lakers weren’t nearly as good last season, but they had a young core and added LeBron James, which meant they were expected to sit around the top of the Western Conference. Those are the expectations that come with signing LeBron James.
Both teams were expected to be powers in the current NBA landscape, ready to pounce this season and in the future if the Warriors’ machine loses some major pieces this offseason. And yet, one is now expected to open the playoffs on the road after a frustrating, mystifying regular season and the other is probably not going to make the playoffs at all. Both James and Irving have had their leadership questioned.
Their meeting Saturday carries little meaning beyond the usual mythos of LakersCeltics. So, how did we get here?
It’s safe to say Lakers are an absolute mess right now. Since LeBron James’ triumphant return from injury on Jan. 31, they’ve gone 3-8 with losses to the Atlanta Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies and, most recently, Phoenix Suns. They currently sit at 30-33, the 10th best record in the West and 4.5 games back from the eighth-place San Antonio Spurs, who own the tiebreaker against them.
No oddsmaker likes their chance of doing that. FiveThirtyEight gives the Lakers a seven percent chance of making the playoffs after that Suns loss, their lowest mark of the season. Basketball Reference’s playoff probabilities are even more bearish, pegging them at 1.3 percent and likely to finish with the fourth-worst record in the conference thanks to their schedule. ESPN’s BPI agrees with that projection, giving them 0.9 percent odds of getting a playoff spot.