11.16 feet under
After losing to the Mavericks last night, the Lakers are 27-34. They’re in ninth place in the Western Conference, 22 games back of the first place Suns. They’re just two games ahead of Pelicans and Blazers, who are tied for the 10th spot. That means they are closer to falling out of the play-in tournament entirely than they are to surpassing the Clippers for the No. 8 seed (4.5 games).
By all accounts, this season has been a disaster. There does not appear to be much hope on the horizon. LeBron is still projecting confidence, because he’s LeBron.
"We still have games to play," he said after last night’s loss, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. "Until you stomp me out, cut my head off, bury me 12 feet under, then I got a chance. So that's my confidence."
I hate to break it to LeBron, but the Lakers are buried damn near 12 feet under right now. Let’s take a look at where all the various projection systems have the Lakers at the moment.
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