Article – [https://lakersnation.com/lakers-tanking-play-in-tournament-against-pelicans-to-avoid-matchup-with-nuggets-would-be-dangerous-cowardly/](https://lakersnation.com/lakers-tanking-play-in-tournament-against-pelicans-to-avoid-matchup-with-nuggets-would-be-dangerous-cowardly/)
I hope this discussion dies. Soon. This is absolutely a loser mentality. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. Period.
Let’s brace for what’s going to be a really pissed off Pels team tomorrow, then turn our focus to Denver. If we can’t beat them, we don’t deserve to be champions anyway so who cares when it happens. Let’s not duck anything.
by ProblematicAndCrazy
42 Comments
I mean yeah I doubt anyone in this sub thinks it’s a good idea, just another point for the media to talk about. A lot of comments on sports pages about how lakers will do this bc they’re scared of Denver.
the idea of throwing a play in game is just click bait fan fiction. No team would ever do this when its single game elimination.
Thank you.
If we did this the basketball gods would make Draymond or Sabonis hit 7 threes against us. That risk is not worth it I think we can beat Jokic step back 1 legged bank shots this time
Shoutout to Pete/LFR for calling out Harrison and Anthony Irwin on the pod. The only time they recognize Irwin is when it’s negative lol.
Gsw or kings will probably beat up if we lose to the ples
It’s stupid and not worthy of discussion. Only the Clips and other losers make moves like this. Like when the Clips ducked us a couple seasons back.
Let’s get them out of the way with round 1 fuck it!
“Dangerous” lol relax.
Cowardly? Yup no question. I’d say bitchmade as well
Just glad the game is tomorrow so we can stop talking about this dumb 💩. People think bron is afraid of anyone enough to tank seeding 🤡🤡🤡
It’s also stupid. Do we really want to a risk a best of 1 against teams that are a combined 7-1 against us this year?
Meh who cares really.
Win or lose they gotta play somebody.
To all those who are proposing this idea
it will die tomorrow when we win.
We can say this if we lose.
Pelicans should tank tomorrow’s game. They have dominated both kings and dubs this season. Then they can avoid Denver.
People are so scared of Denver and it’s kinda embarrassing lmao, ik they’ve won a bunch of games against us recently but let’s not act like they dominate us in those games. We almost always get 10 pt leads on them and lose in the clutch, healthy Lebron and dlo playing average is all we need
If we can’t beat the Nuggets then we aren’t winning a championship anyway, so I’d rather get it over with. Worst case, we save AD and LeBron the wear and tear from a month of playoff basketball and get our weaknesses exposed with plenty of time to prepare for offseason moves to address them.
We match up well with Denver and Vice Versa. It could be 0-100 that’s nothing if you scour through the context because the game between us is always razor thin close until either coach does some boneheaded decisions is the only time either team can get away, so far it’s always been the Hamster who blinked first. They need to play perfectly, we need to play perfectly just for either of us to eck it out. But we have Lebron, never ever count him out, he probably figure it out already and this game won’t be close anymore.
In Lebron’s recent interview he said: In order for this team to be successful I need to do everything. I think Lebron ball is back in the menu guys as evidence in New Orleans game. Denver is about to encounter the Heliocentric version of Lebron, the single most dangerous system is playoff basketball. It’s a fusion between Lebron the player and Lebron the coach wrap into one. It’s Magic+MJ. Everyone eats, everyone is empowered.
Bron and AD probably figures if we’re gonna win everything, we gonna have to have to carry everyone and everything including a Hamster.
The team that’s actually a very bad match up for us is KINGS. Our game against them isn’t even close. Sabonis is too dominant against AD. If you’re going to avoid a game, that’s the game you should avoid at all cost.
This is not a serious idea for so many reasons. But I’ll add one more reason on top of it. Let’s say we tank the Pels game and then lose to Kings or get swept by Thunder. The amount we’d get clowned and spit roasted by the world would be insane. Don’t cheat the game, and we can at least live with the result
The stupid part about all this tanking talk is now if the Pelicans actually win people will just assume Lakers threw on purpose, and then if they miss playoffs altogether people will clown them for purposely losing and missing playoffs.
Tanking this game is how you lose to a hot Steph Curry or Sabonis in the second play in game lol. Dunno why people ignore that
throwing a game puts them at risk for sac or gs to shoot the lights out. just beat the pelicans and put the best possible effort vs the nuggets and if it doesn’t result in a win, just gotta take it on the chin and move on.
It just not even smart.
You play to win the game
If the Lakers do on purpose, like resting Bron/AD, I honestly won’t be upset if either the Kings/GSW defeat them.
Think how Kobe would react hearing this discussion. We are purple and gold. We only eye on championship, not some deep run nonsense. Who’s our star? Lebron freaking James and Anthony freaking Davis. If we play Denver, we play Denver. No reason to be afraid.
It would be stupid for a team this old and broken to go up against OKC over Den.
Yup exactly. Remember last year the Kings rested all their starters, essentially giving Warriors the 6th seed. They proceeded to play each other… didn’t look so smart of them after that. Kings might not even make the playoffs this year. Nothing is guaranteed in this league, let’s try to win ever game from here on out.
Basketball gods not gonna like that
Does no one believe Lebron wants nothing more than to knock out the champs in the first round.
It’s also smart and gives us a better chance at getting out the conference, is it dangerous yes but I trust Lebron in a one and done game over anyone else.
No way they lose on purpose.
People will say that we are ducking the Nuggets anyway regardless of how we lose the 7-8 seeding
Why would we do that. Let’s get the hard shit out of the way.
24 hr news cycle. It’s job security for sports media today. You make shit up. Create non-stories, have people spit fake outrage and “take sides” while casual fans still complain lakers get too much coverage.
If we were the best, we would’ve been top 3 at least.
Just take beat em first so jokic can go race horses it’s win win
It would be idiotic to risk not even making the playoffs at all. Plus then having to take on the first seed team without any kind of rest.
Then this is me being biased, but a Play-In game with the Warriors could also lead to more injuries for the Lakers, cause Draymond.
They aren’t doing it so who cares what the idiot media and fans think people are just desperate to come up with story lines that don’t exist
Let’s fucking go – LBJ is healthier than last year – 🤨
Read an interesting thought today: If you wanna beat the nuggets it may be most doable in the first round, before they find their playoff rhythm.
Guaranteed this “discussion” is not happening within the team at all. Just a fun/silly media and fan talking point.