NBA scores 2016: A Lakers playoff push isn’t asking too much

Los Angeles needs to be better — a lot better, on the defensive end. But this season is wide open for it.

Dec 23, 2016, 1:00 PM UTC

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

Everything that had dragged the Lakers down over the past weeks was nowhere to be seen in Thursday’s first half. Los Angeles zipped the ball around for open three-pointers (making six in the second quarter alone) and even got contributions from Thomas Robinson, who had his best game of the year after scarcely playing.

Lou Williams knocked down a three-pointer with about nine minutes left in the second quarter, and the Lakers went up by 19. It was sharp basketball, boasting passable offense mixed with great shotmaking. And then, for a second-straight game, it all fell apart.

The Lakers held a 19-point lead over the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday, too. They lost it and fell 117-113 that game, just like they had blown their lead on Thursday by halftime and ended up falling 115-107 to Miami. Sure, it was an energy-charged crowd with Shaquille O’Neal’s halftime jersey retirement, and it was the Lakers’ sixth road game on a seven-game trip. But that doesn’t change that Los Angeles has lost 11 of their last 12 games, with the lone win coming against Philadelphia, dropping them to 11-21 on the year.

This isn’t a “playoff team” as you’ve come to know playoff teams, despite the lofty expectations that are almost required in Los Angeles. D’Angelo Russell said the Lakers will “most definitely be a playoff squad” before the season, while Jim Buss — vice president of basketball operations — has previously said he’ll resign if the team isn’t in place to “contend” by the summer of 2017. Well, the Lakers aren’t contending, and it’s unlikely they’ll even be a .500 team this season.

But this is an unusual year in the Western Conference. Seven teams are near-locks for the postseason, with the worst team of that bunch (Oklahoma City) sitting five games over .500. The eighth spot, however, is anybody’s guess. The de facto assumption is that Portland would continue their ascension as a roster, but their hideous defense has them sitting at 13-18. The Lakers are only two-and-a-half games back of that. In any other year, they would already be done — but this season, there’s a glimmer.

The Lakers have had the worst or second-worst defense in the league three straight years now, and they’re now going on a fourth. No team has finished with a defensive rating worse than 110.0 the past five NBA seasons, but the Lakers are coming in at precisely 110.1 right now. They’re only saved from having the worst defense in the league is how bad Portland has been. If there’s no improvement, then the Lakers can forget about a playoff surge in 2017.

But as the team is building 19-point leads, you see a roster that potentially could make a run for the playoffs. They missed Julius Randle on Thursday who was absent for the birth of his son, and he helps on both ends. Larry Nance Jr. sat the game out, too. But the Lakers can’t blow those multiple 19-point leads, either. That can’t happen.

It’ll take a hell of a coaching performance from Luke Walton in the second half of the season. Los Angeles has a bunch of athletes, and he’ll have to keep turning them into defenders (and erase those awful Byron Scott-learned habits). But making the playoffs — even a playoff push, to be honest — would be great for a young roster.

That usually wouldn’t be the case, but the West is cracked open. There’s one spot remaining, and the Lakers have to be asking themselves, ‘Why not?’ They’ve turned into a fun team, but now’s their next lesson: becoming a better one.

The absurdity of the Warriors

Golden State’s sitting at a 26-4 record now. Sweep the final four games they play this year — obviously not an easy task with a game in Cleveland on Christmas day — and they’ll be sitting at 30-4. Last season, they ended the year 2015 at 30-2. It’s not quite the same, but damn — it wouldn’t be too far off, either.

They’re good. That’s an understatement. They have the No. 2 offense and defense, and a 13 net rating that means they’re just outclassing the rest of the league yet again. They can beat you with virtually any skill: passing, man-on-man defense, getting out in transition. They can dunk all over you and yell about it, too.

The Warriors’ bench has a few inconsistent links — or, rather than the bench, what Steve Kerr called them.

But overall, Golden State is every bit as good as we thought they would be.