On January 1, Beijing time, in an NBA regular season game played today, the Lakers lost 109-129 to the Pelicans at home, and according to US time, after this game, the Lakers' 2023 games will be over.
Judging from the record, in this season's 2023 game, the Lakers can be described as both sad and happy. The good news is that they have come together to win the first mid-season tournament in NBA history, but the sad news is that the Lakers have not had a very good record, with only 17 wins and 17 losses, ranking ninth in the West. This is three more wins than last season's 34 games, and the first 34 games last season were 14-20.
There are several reasons for the Lakers' poor record:
One is plagued by injuries. Since the start of the new season, the total number of games played by the full team has been less than three. Defensive stalwart Vanderbilt didn't make his season debut until December, then Vincent, Hachimura, Reddish, James, Bushy Eyebrows and others were plagued by injuries, and now, the returning Vincent has had eight weeks out from surgery, and Russell has been injured again.
The second is that the schedule is very unfriendly. Since the start of the season, the Lakers have played seven back-to-backs, four of which have been played on the road, and the other three have been one home and one away. In these 7 back-to-backs, the Lakers have never won 2 games in a row, and they can still achieve 1 win and 1 loss in the first few times, and they simply lost both games in the back.
At the same time, the Clippers have 5 back-to-backs, 2 away back-to-backs, 2 home back-to-backs, 1 home and 1 away in the same period, and the current record is 19-12 and ranks fourth in the West, while the Warriors have only 5 back-to-backs, like the Clippers, 2 home back-to-backs, 2 away back-to-backs, 1 home and 1 away, and the current record is 15-17 and 11th in the West.
In addition, the Lakers have played 19 away games so far, the Warriors have only 15, and the Clippers have only 14. The good news is that the Lakers will play 11 of the next 12 games in Los Angeles (10 home games and one away game against the Clippers), and the Lakers will need to capitalize on this back-to-back home streak to improve their record.