Lakers stars Anthony Davis, far left, and LeBron James (23) watch from the bench with teammates during the Game 6 loss on Thursday night at Staples Center.
In the final two blowouts by Phoenix, the Lakers collapsed the moment they realized Davis wasn’t going to play, almost as if they knew James could no longer carry them. James appears to be slowly losing the battle. The second issue is the growing conflict between James and Father Time. “I know what I go through, what I play through, and I don’t need to prove anything to anyone and I’m not going to prove anything to anyone.” “I don’t have to prove nothing to anyone,” Davis said. He acts as if he doesn’t know, or care, that the entire NBA is questioning his fitness and his toughness. It’s troubling that Davis doesn’t seem to equally grasp the gravity of the situation. “Obviously the number one thing for us is getting AD healthy,” said James emphatically after Thursday’s finale. His lanky frame is obviously not fit for a full NBA schedule. Whatever he’s been doing in the offseason, it’s not working. He needs to build a body to match his $190-million contract. These Lakers failed to defend their title because Davis can’t stay healthy, James can no longer carry the team alone, and the front office surrounded them with some massive mistakes. These Lakers collapsed because they are built around one fragile star, one aging star, and a bunch of supporting pieces that never quite fit. The truth is more complicated, the reality more somber, the future terribly unsettled. The easy narrative is that the Lakers began the season wiped out from only a 71-day break after their championship - the shortest in league history - and then stumbled with injuries to Davis and James. It’s mind blowing, so surreal that many of the 8,550 fans stuck around afterward to stare at the empty court as if hoping somehow the Lakers would come back out and keep playing.Īt that point, public address announcer Lawrence Tanter intoned, “Ladies and gentlemen, one more applause for the defending champs.” Nine months after they danced off a court in the middle of Florida with the franchise’s 17th championship, the Lakers trudged off a court in downtown Los Angeles with one of the franchise’s greatest debacles. No, it is no joke that the favorites to repeat as NBA champions ended up as a punch line. Davis was gone in the first quarter with a strained groin, and the Lakers were gone in the first round after a fractured season, wiped out by the Phoenix Suns 113-100 in Game 6 that gave the Suns a first-round series win 4-2.
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