The Los Angeles Lakers continued their downward spiral with a loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night, and Magic Johnson seems downright disgusted with the way his former team has been playing.
The Lakers found a way to lose to a Blazers team that was missing Damian Lillard and just traded CJ McCollum this week. It was the type of spot that should have allowed LeBron James and company to get back on track, but instead they fell to 26-30 on the season with their sixth loss in eight games. Johnson tweeted afterword that he was “speechless.”
LeBron didn’t have much to say, either. He tried to stay optimistic after the 107-105 defeat but told reporters he is “tired as hell.”
“Literally just — I’m tired as hell right now,” James said, per ESPN’s Dave MacMenamin. “I just want to get some wine and get up tomorrow. I feel good about what tomorrow has in store, and we’ll see what happens. We’ll see what happens as far as the deadline, but other than that, I’m kind of just focused on what we can do to be better.”
Lakers players may be pressuring the front office to make significant changes ahead of Thursday afternoon’s trade deadline. Russell Westbrook has not been a great fit in L.A. and has clearly fallen out of favor with head coach Frank Vogel. His contract will make him difficult to move, but the Lakers may consider trading him for one fellow star player.
Very few people thought the Lakers would be championship contenders given the age of their roster. However, most didn’t predict that they would be four games below .500 at this point in the season. Magic isn’t the only one who is surprised by the poor stretch of play.
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