At this point, the Los Angeles Lakers aren’t really worth writing about. Since Jordan Clarkson sunk the game winner against the Philadelphia 76ers, it seems like someone made it very clear to the players to stop trying, especially on defense.

The Lakers lost by 30 points, at home to the Portland Trail Blazers (107-77). This means two home losses by a combined 51 points in the span of three days. That’s a lot more like it for Byron Scott and the ownership, who seem to be frightened from the fact that the players will actually win some games. They seem quite certain the entire future of the franchise hangs on getting a top 5 draft pick. We saw how well their lottery pick did this season.

Not that it’s Julius Randle’s fault, but it’s a perfect example of this while lazy plan to rely on luck and the draft: You have no control over it, and it has nothing to do with good or bad planning. It’s simply putting all your chips on dumb luck, instead of actually doing some solid, smart, analytical and sound thinking about how to build this team and improve it over the offseason and in the long run. Develop players; a system. But you need a good head coach among other things to do that.

Jeremy Lin played 25 minutes, scoring just 4 points on 1-of-9 from the field in one of his worst performances this season from a statistical stand point. However, the Lakers probably weren’t as bad overall when he was on the court. Nothing new about that, but they need a good game from him in order to keep up with teams like the Blazers, who actually have something to play for.

Conclusions? Insights? There are none. Lin still seems to be affected by his infection that kept him out for a couple of games. Jeremy Lin had a good thing going for him even before being inserted into the lineup. Lets hope that despite these ugly losses, he can put in a few more meaningful individual performances, for his sake and because it’s about the only entertaining thing the Lakers have to offer these days.

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