They Are In PANIC...

The Lakers defense completely broke down once again in the 4th quarter against Atlanta, as you can see here making Onyeka Okongwu look like a max player.
Time after time they got destroyed on the pick and roll, before Trey Young ultimately put the nail in the coffin with the dagger from way downtown.
With this game, the Lakers are now at the top of a list that you wouldn’t want to be on.
They’ve blown the most 10+ point leads in the entire league having done so 12 times.
The latest on Lebron James is that he got an MRI and it revealed swelling in his knee.
So Frank Vogel said that he will not play until they put that under control and the swelling goes down.
This means at least a few more games for the Lakers without their best player, and we see how bad they look on the court when he’s not playing.
With the last 3 consecutive losses they have now fallen to 24-27 deep into the play-in zone and unless they’re somehow able to make up 5 games to catch Dallas, it seems like they’ll be fighting in the elimination tournament to even get to the playoffs for the second year in a row.
And that’s exactly why the organization and the fanbase is extremely worried.
You know who else is extremely worried? The Utah Jazz.
They are literally in a free fall right now going 2 and 11 over the last 13 games. 2 and 11 that’s crazy.
Somehow they’re still in the upper portion of the standings at the number 4 spot due to their strong start, but things are looking scary for them.
Both Gobert and Mitchell have been in and out of the lineup and the latest blow to the team came last night when Joe Ingles suffered an ugly looking injury which has the team fearing that it could be season ending.
With Denver and Dallas getting into a nice rhythm over the last 10 games and getting close to the Jazz, at the moment it will be a fight for them to keep this number 4 spot rather than looking up towards the top.
Next up I got the Brooklyn Nets. Now sure, they are still within 2 and a half games from the number 1 seed but the fact of the matter is that with the Kyrie situation and the latest injuries to KD and Harden, there were games where this was the starting lineup.
Kessler Edwards, James Johnson, Lamarcus Aldridge, Deandre Bembry and Patty Mills.
No disrespect but this is by no means a playoff lineup.
So with that the Nets have all of a sudden found themselves at the number 6 spot just above the play-in zone.
Brooklyn will be without Durant for a longer stretch and it will be interesting to see when Harden comes back if he’ll be able to keep this team afloat, of course helped by Kyrie in games on the road. But at the moment, the situation is awful for this team with championship aspirations.
And finally we have to put the Boston Celtics here. Despite the fact that I wasn’t high on them at the start of the season and had them between the 5 and 6 spot, I could not imagine them having a basically 50% record so far.
And that will happen when your best player is incredibly inconsistent. Just look at this.
Dude had games going 1-5 , 0-4, 0-7 and 0-6 from downtown, so that’s a combined 1 for 22 in these games. He then explodes for 51 points shooting lights out 9 for 14 from three and 7 for 14 the next game. Just to then come back down with 2 for 8 and 4 for 13.
Relying so much on tough and contested jump shots, without rhythm and without ball movement is exactly why they’re in this position and it’s not only Tatum’s fault but this is on the entire team overall. For those blaming the coach- even with the coaching change we see zero improvements.
So the team has to be thinking if it finally is time to split up their 2 main guys and pull the trigger on a trade. In my opinion the panic button is flashing red in Boston as well.
Let me know in the comments which teams would you add to this list. Ya boi is back after the prolonged winter break, and back to regular uploads.
Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.