Throughout all that the Los Angeles Lakers have been through, they found a way to buckle down and end the season with a positive record and secure a spot in the playoffs.
Since the beginning of the season as all knew, especially with a team that has LeBron James on their roster it is going to be a championship or bust year.
With first time Head Coach Darvin Ham coming in to coach the team to the promise the land there was one more decision that the team was going to have to make.
What would they do with Westbrook. They decided to not trade him during the offseason, and give it another run under a new Head Coach to see how it would go.
Well, during the first 10 games of the season things did not go well. They started off 2-8,
After that point Coach Darvin Ham had decided to bring Russell Westbrook off the bench and start the backup point guard Dennis Schroder.
They started winning games but they faced another obstacle.
Anthony Davis had an injury. He was out for many weeks and Lebron was holding it down until he got back.
During this time they were winning games but GM Rob Pelinka knows that LeBron doesn’t have too many good years left so he has to put the right pieces around James to succeed in the western conference.
As the Trade deadline was coming to an end Pelinka had found ways to improve the roster they had, and try to prepare for a late season playoff push.
They had traded for D’Angelo Russell, Jared Vanderbilt, Rui Hachumura and Malik Beasley.
When these trades were announced, all Lakers fans were pleased. They got rid of “Toxic” Westbrook and added more depth and shooting to play alongside Anthony Davis and LeBron James.
Going into the second half of the season looking at the second half of the schedule everyone was thinking with this new team they could make a run at the playoffs, but they would have to go 16-7 to make a push for the 6 seed.
They knew it was possible but had to jell fast as a unit.
Coming fresh off All-Star break they won their first 2 games both against teams that was currently in the play-in standings or top 6 in the west.
They beat the Golden state Warriors and the Dallas Mavericks.
In the game against the Dallas Mavericks, James was attempting a layup late in the first quarter and had twisted his angle.
While he was out for approximately 3 and a half weeks Anthony Davis was playing at a MVP level helping the team get back to winning ways having fun doing it.
As he was was balling out Lakers guard Austin Reves had played a big role in the team success at this point.
He was averaging about 16 points a game, and also had received a starting role while doing so.
James had returned to action on March 26 has the lakers had improved to .500 on the season had was sitting in the play-in tournament while trying to get to a top 6 seed.
At this time they won four straight games against the Buss, Timberwolves, Rockets, Jazz to get into the 6 seed into the western conference.
As chances got higher for them now, they are currently facing getting as high as the 5th seed if they can beat their next door neighbors. The Los Angles Clippers.
As they failed to accomplish that mission, they knew things got kind of tight for them getting the 6th seed but knew they couldn’t let it all slip away.
They knew they still had to ball basketball to not fall into the 8th seed to play in the play-in tournament and having to play on the road. They wanted home court advantage.
They took care of business, finishing the season strong winning their last two games of the season against the Suns and the Utah Jazz.
They finished the season 43-39, after a 2-10 start facing all odds.
They now look forward to winning on Tuesday night against the Timberwolves and face the Memphis Grizzles in the first round of the playoffs.