The Los Angeles Lakers blow another lead in a winnable game, this time against the Brooklyn Nets, as the incompetence of Byron Scott keeps putting Jeremy Lin out of the game when he’s most needed. It was a good game for him on a personal level, but a proud and glorified franchise is sinking faster than the speed of light.
The Lakers have lost seven games in a row, and just might finish February without a single win. They’ve lost 16 of their last 17 games. Bad players keep getting big minutes, the right players keep getting ignored until the game is safely lost and gone, while Scott is doing his best not just to lose, but also try and decimate the confidence of players who might be able to contribute once this team decides that winning isn’t such a terrible thing to do.
Scott, in all of his wisdom, threw in Lin to the game in the third quarter only after the Nets managed to build a 10 point lead. That’s one smart method from a coach that knows there isn’t anything he can actually contribute to the players under him, so he might as well follow company line and play the worst possible lineups as much as possible. If the Lakers are going to break some negative record for losing and futility? F@#$ it… Everything for a draft pick I guess.
Jordan Clarkson wasn’t bad, scoring 12 points. He isn’t a bad player. But the fact that Ronnie Price played 27 minutes, more than both Lin or Clarkson, speaks volumes in so many ways about how messed up this franchise is. The NBA seems to be opening up jobs for bad players just in order to fill the tanking ambitions of team owners and general managers who have given up on succeeding.
Considering the circumstances, this was a good day for Jeremy Lin, more than anyone else. He scored 18 points in just 24 minutes; his highest scoring game in over a month. He didn’t play in the right moments because Scott, by command from above, is letting the wrong players play at key junctures in the game, but at this point it’s all about building up a CV so free agency will yield Lin or any other player a landing spot he’s happy with. This was the kind of games that might help him get what he wants.