Los Angeles Lakers: Biggest things we’ve learned from missing the playoffs
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Lakers have been out of the hunt for weeks but were officially eliminated from the NBA Playoffs Friday night at the hands of the Brooklyn Nets.
From 1948 to 2013 the Los Angeles Lakers only missed the NBA Playoffs five times. The team has officially surpassed that number in the last six years as the Lakers have missed the playoffs yet again.
A 111-106 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Friday officially made what everyone already knew was inevitable: the Los Angeles Lakers were eliminated from playoff contention. This is something that fans excepted weeks before the official elimination.
While this extends one streak, it ends another. This marks the end of LeBron James’ eight-year NBA Finals run, which will truly go down in history as one of the best stretches ever. Although he won just three, and nobody really expected the Lakers to make the Finals, it is sad to see the streak end.
The focus for the fans and the front office is already on this summer as the Lakers look to right what has been done wrong and rebound with a strong 2019 campaign.
However, instead of looking ahead, we can look back at the 2018-2019 season and realize what we learned from the Los Angeles Lakers missing the playoffs.