The Pop-Punk Lakers

By: Kyle Mucerino

As the starting lineups were announced last night and LeBron found himself surrounded by Gabe Vincent, Marcus Smart, Jake LaRavia and Maxi Kleber I couldn’t but help think of the beginning of the song “Always” by Blink-182.

“I've been here before a few times, and I'm quite aware we're dying.”

There’s no doubt these words echoed in LeBron’s mind throughout the game as the Lakers fell in Portland 132-116 for their 5th loss in 6 games.

LeBron had 20p/9r/8a but didn’t get much help elsewhere other than Marcus Smart’s 25 points and Drew Timme’s 21, but the Blazers controlled the entire game and it never seemed like the Lakers were going to overtake them at any point.

The Lakers were without Luka, Deandre Ayton and Jaxson Hayes, in addition to Austin Reaves.

The Blazers were without their best player Deni Avdija.

You always hear coaches and players sing the chorus of “players starring in their roles” when teams get on a hot streak. It’s become one of the top clichés in the NBA.

The Lakers right now just don’t have that from enough guys on a consistent basis.

Starters Jake LaRavia only had 2p/5r/4a in over 28 minutes while Gabe Vincent had 3p/1r/0a in nearly 23 minutes.

Despite being down two starters in Dončić and Ayton, getting that kind of production out of two guys inserted into the starting lineup make it hard to buy the Lakers as true contenders, even at full strength.

The Lakers just don’t seem to have enough quality players on a nightly basis in an NBA where it seems like 9-man rotation is needed to compete and fend off teams in the West to keep a top 4 seed.

LeBron and Luka might be looking around in a few weeks asking the question:

“So here I am, I'm trying. So here I am, are you ready?”