The Los Angeles Lakers endured a very rough 2-10 start to the 2022-23 regular season. Their struggles out of the gates left many to believe that they would once again end up missing the postseason entirely.
However, the Lakers made many changes to their roster with midseason trades and wound up securing a spot in the league’s play-in tournament.
L.A. then clinched a spot in the playoffs by beating the Minnesota Timberwolves in the play-in. Now, the Lakers are up 3-1 in their first-round series against the Memphis Grizzlies with a chance to close things out on Wednesday night.
Lakers owner Jeanie Buss recently said that she’s proud of this season’s team.
“I’m proud of this Lakers team this season,” Buss told People. “We started off poorly, and it would’ve been easy to give up.”
She said that the Lakers “found their footing.”
“These guys committed to each other and really came in the second half of the season and made a nice playoff push, which is really what the fans want,” she said.
The Lakers went 18-9 to close out the regular season after trading away Russell Westbrook and other assets for D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt.
During that stretch, plenty of people began to identify them as true title contenders. With each win Los Angeles gets now, more and more people seem to believe that the team has a real shot at winning it all this season.
Few predicted the Lakers to be in this position when the season began, but they’ve clawed and fought their way here.
They’ll want to beat Memphis on Wednesday in order to get as much rest as possible for a second-round matchup against either the Sacramento Kings or Golden State Warriors. The Kings and Warriors are tied 2-2 in their series, which won’t finish until Friday night at the earliest.
Although the Lakers have one foot in the second round of the playoffs, they can’t underestimate a hungry Grizzlies squad that earned the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference during the regular season.
All Buss can do now is just hope her team makes it all the way to the NBA Finals. There’s a long way to go, but things are undoubtedly on the right track right now for the Purple and Gold.
