It was only two weeks ago when the Lakers seemed on the brink of oblivion.
The hunky-dory-ness of the Lakers lately might be more of a passing calm than a rock-solid foundation, and their schedule heats up significantly with Dallas, Philadelphia and Memphis among their next five games. But with Davis expected back in the coming weeks, and the team winning the kind of close games they were losing at the start of the season, the call to action, Coach Darvin Ham said, was necessary to shake them out of their slump.
The pickings appear mighty slim at the moment. The Lakers strongly considered packages from the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers over the summer, but both of those teams have performed better than expected this season. One of the most obvious candidates for a helpful player from a bad team is a former Jazz player – Detroit’s Bojan Bogdanovic – but there are plenty of teams who will want to bid for a 6-foot-7 wing with playoff experience who is shooting 40% from 3-point range.
– but he certainly seems more invested. Westbrook was composed Monday night about the team’s approach to a “next man up” mentality, which he said has been enabled by the culture the team is building. That has to continue against tougher competition, in a trade deadline season that is likely to pile on the pressure.