The Los Angeles Lakers are off to an 0-2 start to the season. But if we’re being honest with ourselves, this is always how the season was going to start.
They played arguably the two best teams in the Western Conference to open the season, the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Clippers — and lost the latter by a mere six points. For a team coming off a missed postseason appearance, there’s no shame in that.
If you were high on the team’s now -280 odds at Tipico to make the playoffs coming into the season, or the over on its 44.5 preseason wins total, now isn’t the time to panic. But if the Lakers lose their next game Sunday against the Portland Trail Blazers, that would be the time.
It’s not that the Blazers aren’t a good team. I contend they’ll be better than most people think and similarly push for a play-in tournament spot like the Lakers. So as hard as it may be to accept, this is the Lakers’ real competition.
However, the Trail Blazers shouldn’t be better than the Lakers. Not six months from now when their young pieces are more settled and ready to contribute, and definitely not now when LA’s veterans should be at their freshest.
Three-point shooting woes aside — the Lakers are 22% through two games — a team led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis has no business losing, at home, to a team whose best player just returned from a season-long absence (Damian Lillard) and whose next best player is probably Anfernee Simons.
If the Lakers lose that game, then you can start panicking — and considering the +220 odds for them to miss the playoffs again. But now isn’t the time, because anyone with some sense knew the Lakers were never going to be competing on a level with the Warriors or Clippers in the first place.
So far, the season is going as expected.
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