LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — The Lakers from before the pandemic, they didn’t translate.
Through six games since the restart, including losses to the defending champion Raptors, the upstart Thunder, the Rockets minus Russell Westbrook, and the middle-American Pacers, and even a win against the Bol Bol-led Nuggets, it is clear the bubble Lakers are not the same group that tore through the West up until the world stopped.
This is not their fault, they are not alone among upper-echelon NBA teams feeling the pinch, and it does not spell doom come the playoffs, which are about a week away.
“It feels like a different season,” LeBron James said, after the Lakers stole one from Denver, 124-121, on Kyle Kuzma’s game-winning 3, with all the Nuggets’ backups on the floor. “Will we be the team that we want to game in Game 1 of the first round that we were when we stopped? I don’t think so, but we’ll get better and better…
