The final week of the regular season is about to begin, and the Los Angeles Lakers are already on the brink. After yesterday's loss to the Nuggets, the Purple and Gold Legion are already two wins behind the Spurs, and if they lose to the Suns tomorrow and the Spurs beat the Nuggets, they will officially be declared out of the playoffs.
At such a life-and-death moment, LeBron James and Anthony Davis both appeared in the injury report, hanging up the label of "doubtful to play". Fight, or don't fight? It became a dilemma.
Bryant's 2013, Old Jen's 2022
Last summer, Rob Pelinka made a big deal, bringing in nine All-Stars through a five-team trade, former regular season MVP Russell Westbrook, and LeBron James and Anthony Davis to form the luxury big three.
However, due to the aging of the lineup, poor running-in, coupled with the previous two-boss thick eyebrows suffered a large number of injuries and missed the game, the next 2021-22 season, although LeBron James is in a heroic state, averaging 30.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game, the overall performance of the Lakers is very struggling, always hovering on the edge of the playoffs. Until the last moment, they were still looking forward to their star risking death to save the team from danger.
This situation is similar to the Lakers led by Bryant in 2013!
Before the start of the 2012-13 season, the Lakers sent away young star Andrew Bynum through a four-team deal, brought in dwight Howard, a six-time All-Star and three-time defensive player of the year winner, and Formed a new "F4" combination with Kobe, Paul Gasol and Steve Nash, so it was highly anticipated.
However, the seemingly luxurious Lakers at the time had a serious lineup aging problem, and all four starters except Howard were over 30 years old. Among them, Kobe Bryant is 34 years old, Gasol is 32 years old, Ron Artest, who has not changed his name at the time, is 33 years old, and Nash is 38 years old.
The run-in between superstars did not meet expectations, Gasol missed 33 games due to injury, Nash also missed 32 games, and the Lakers stumbled all the way until the final day of the regular season, and failed to secure playoff qualification.
That year's Kobe Bryant, still in good shape, averaged 27.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game, and averaged 45.5 minutes per game in the last 7 games of the season, almost single-handedly continuing the Lakers' playoff hopes.
Bryant's persistence was moving, but it also paid a terrible price. In the home game against the Warriors on April 13, 2013, Kobe Bryant played 44 minutes and 54 seconds, cut 34 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, but at the end of the game, he accidentally slipped during a breakthrough, resulting in a rupture of his left Achilles tendon!
The strong-willed Kobe Bryant insisted on two free throws before being replaced, and people may not have realized at the time that that moment became an important inflection point in the legendary superstar's career - in the three seasons since, Kobe Bryant has only played 107 games in total, never to find his injured self.
That year, the Lakers eventually managed to squeeze the last train of the playoffs, but were swept by the Spurs in the first round, and due to Kobe's injury (and retirement), they missed the playoffs for the next six consecutive years, trapped in the darkest period in the club's history.
Should James sprint all the way to the playoffs?
Bryant's injury in 2013 had a certain fortuitous element, and that season, his health has been on the run, missing only two games in total before an unexpected injury to the Warriors.
However, there is also the inevitable in chance, fatigue combat, which has always been a healthy enemy, the fuse of injury and illness. Many times, it is such an unexpected moment that changes the career trajectory of a player forever and makes the fate of a team slide in another direction.
What's more, today's James, 3 years older than Bryant in 2013, has begun to light up red lights frequently in the past few years.
For most of his career, James has shown himself as an "iron man", but since joining the Lakers in 2018, injuries have slowly come to the door. In the past four seasons, he has missed 80 games due to injuries in different parts such as groin, ankle and knee, and in his previous 15 years of career, he has missed only 71 games.
James has missed 22 games with injuries this season, and in addition to a knee strain, he sprained his ankle in the March 28 away game against the Pelicans, and three of his next four games were suspended. Obviously, his physical condition is far from 100%, and fighting with injuries will inevitably increase the risk of injury, and in the worst case, he may even ruin his career like Kobe Bryant did that year.
James certainly has immediate goals to achieve, and in addition to the Lakers' play-off qualification, he needs to play at least two more games to qualify for the second scoring title of his career.
But on the other hand, he has more and more long-term goals. He is now 1,325 points away from Abdul-Abdul-Jabbar's all-time scoring record of 38,387 points, and if you estimate it by averaging 30.3 points per game this season, he will be crowned the all-time leading scorer in 44 games.
But if his career is at an inflection point because of risk-taking injuries, then this seemingly close goal may not be successfully achieved.
If James wants to hit the throne of the first man in history, he must win at least one more championship. And the experience of the past few years has proven that without a healthy body, everything is impossible to talk about.
James also wants to stage the historical story of "father and son", and Brownie will not be able to participate in the NBA draft and enter the league until 2023 at the earliest, and James does not want to rely on "pension" to achieve this goal....
37 years old is already a time node for a professional basketball player to be vigilant, and many superstars, at such an age, ended their entire careers because of an unexpected injury. James is talented, but he can't go against the laws of nature, and with more goals to be achieved, and a tug between the team and the individual, short and long, whatever choice he makes, it's understandable. As everyone who truly loves basketball, he should not be morally kidnapped.
Hold on, or give up? The Lakers face a dilemma
Facing a dilemma, it is not only James, but also the entire Lakers team.
The Lakers overdrafted almost all the future in exchange for Davis, and then gave up Kuzma, Pop, Harrell to introduce Westbrook, locked up the salary space, and paid a luxury tax of 45 million, of course, not to chase the lottery, not to mention, their draft picks have long been given to others. So with the hope of a first-tier playoff, the Lakers will definitely have to go all out.
After yesterday's loss to the Nuggets, the Lakers' record became 31-47, while the Spurs, ranked ahead of them, were 33-45. The two teams played each other in the regular season to draw 2-2, but the Spurs' record against western teams (23 wins and 25 losses) was better than that of the Lakers (16 wins and 32 losses), so the Lakers must win at least one more game than each other to squeeze into the top ten of the West.
The Lakers and Spurs still have 4 games to play in the regular season, although as long as the Lakers lose one more game and the Spurs win one more, this competition will officially usher in the finale, but in theory, the Lakers still have the possibility of desperate situations.
The Spurs have just played two games in a row against the Blazers, the sweetest schedule is over, the next four games against the Nuggets, Timberwolves, Warriors and Mavericks, all of which are the top seven teams in the West, to win two of them to ignore the Performance of the Lakers to ensure play-off qualification, is not a simple task.
What's more, Spurs star Dezhangtai Murray recently contracted upper respiratory tract diseases, has missed two consecutive games, lost 7 or 8 pounds during the illness, and will continue to rest against the Nuggets tomorrow. The Spurs have met the last four strong opponents in this state, and it is difficult to say how the result will be.
On the Lakers side, the opponents in the last four games are the Suns, Warriors, Thunder and Nuggets, of which it is not difficult to win a battle with the Thunder, although the Warriors have just won consecutive victories over the Jazz and Kings, due to Curry's absence, they are far from the best state, and the last day to play the Nuggets, does not rule out the possibility of the opponent's rotation. Only tomorrow hit the sun, and the result is the least optimistic.
The Suns played the Thunder, Devon Booker, DeAndre Ayton and Jay Crowder were all scheduled to take a break, resulting in an unexpected overturn, today's latest injury report shows that they will all play tomorrow's game, which is obviously not good news for the Lakers. But the game did not start, never know the result, only from the perspective of the record and opponents, the Lakers have not yet reached the point of need to give up.
But the Lakers can't help but consider the price they might pay for making a final effort. Earlier mentioned James's injury risk, in fact, Davis's health is also worrying.
Yesterday played the Nuggets, thick eyebrows played 35 minutes to get 28 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocks, but several last-minute layups missed, after the game Frank Vogel revealed in an interview that the foot injury is still bothering Davis, and those key shots are also directly related to this.
In an interview after the game, Thick Brow said that even if his physical condition is only 60% or 70%, he will choose to stick with injuries. But to fight or not to fight, by no means only rely on "personal will", with Davis's "fragile physique", let him fight with injuries, more worrying than the 37-year-old James.
Even if the Lakers make it to the playoffs with a last-ditch effort, in their current form, it will be difficult to go further in the playoffs. If you want to hit the championship again, realistic expectations should be put on next season. The long-term health of James and Davis is an indispensable foundation.