NBA Power Rankings: 20. Los Angeles Lakers (8-9)
Last week: (1-3) – vs. SAS (W), vs. CHI (L), @ MIL (L), @ BOS (L)
Rank last week: 13
Offensive rating: 104.7 (24th in NBA)
Defensive rating: 108.5 (18th in NBA)
Before the season, if you would have said that the Los Angeles Lakers would be 20th in the power rankings at any point in the season, people would say you were crazy.
That’s just how poorly they’ve been playing this season. They had a somewhat tough schedule last week, but for a team that was projected to reach the Finals, no schedule should be too hard for them.
Even the return of LeBron James couldn’t help them this past week. He returned in a game vs. the Celtics, but the Lakers ended up losing by 22.
LA needs to figure things out on both ends of the floor if they want to make a deep playoff run. Right now, things are trending in the completely wrong direction.
Season outlook: Before the season began, most people pegged the Lakers as favorites to win the West. Now, if the season started today, they’d be stuck in the bottom half of the play-in tournament. They need to figure things out, and quickly if they want to have success in the postseason.