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Barely a week ago, a charmed Lakers season screamed three words.
Deep playoff run.
Today, a jinxed Lakers season soberly whispers three very different words.
Shut it down.
With less than a month of games remaining, the Lakers season is done, finished, kaput.
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Twisted and torn by the sudden same-day injuries to their two best players, the Lakers are broken beyond repair.
Read more: With their Big Three sidelined, Lakers lose to Thunder again in another blowout
They can’t win without Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, and neither is coming back at full strength in time to save them.
They were wholly embarrassed in their first two shorthanded games and will wind up falling to a fourth or fifth seed with a first-round matchup looming against Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets.
They can’t beat the Rockets, they won’t beat the Rockets, and the season will officially and quickly and sadly end. It might end in something more palatable than a sweep — maybe they win a game? — but it’s going to end, and soon, and the Lakers need to reinforce their priorities before it does.
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Shut it down.
Tell Doncic to stay in Spain for as long as it takes for that magic medicine to cure his strained hamstring. Tell Doncic his MVP-worthy season is DOA. Tell Doncic to begin getting ready for September.
The Lakers don’t need him showing up in three weeks trying to save this season on a limp and a prayer. They don’t need him risking a reinjuring of the hamstring that could affect his summer workouts and bleed into next season.
Lakers star Luka Doncic reacts to a play during a blowout loss to the Thunder in Oklahoma City last week. (Cooper Neill / Getty Images)
Most experts agree it would be a miracle if Doncic would return at 100% in time to carry them through the first round of the playoffs, which start April 18. The Lakers don’t need him to be a miracle. They need him to be the cornerstone of a franchise that is being rebuilt in his image.
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They don’t need him now, when he’s not going to save them anyway. They need him six months from now, to be healthy and in shape to lead them into their next…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/plaschke-broken-lakers-shut-down-100000554.html
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Publish date : 2026-04-09 10:00:00
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