SI:AM | We Can Stop Paying Attention To the Lakers Now
Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. My morning got off to a lousy start as I learned tomorrow’s Yankees–Red Sox Opening Day game is already postponed.
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Stick a fork in ’em
Good news, NBA fans: you’ll only have to endure one more Lakers game on national TV this year.
After losing 121–110 to the Suns last night in Phoenix, the Lakers have officially been eliminated from postseason contention. They’re 31–48 on the season, three games behind the Spurs for the final spot in the play-in tournament with three to play (San Antonio holds a tiebreaker over Los Angeles).
The Lakers were without LeBron James, who sprained his ankle two weeks ago, returned for Friday’s loss to the Pelicans but sat out again on Sunday and last night. But even if James had played in Phoenix, the team’s fate had been sealed. They had lost six consecutive games entering last night, tumbling out of playoff position in the process. Losing their seventh straight mercifully saved everyone from having to pretend the Lakers still matter. They play the Warriors on TNT tomorrow night, but you can skip that and just go to bed early.
A James-led team has never lost more games than this year’s Lakers. The Cavaliers went 35–47 during his rookie season and the Lakers went 37–45 in his first season in Los Angeles. This year is a new low.
The Lakers disastrous season can’t be blamed on a single factor, but injuries were the biggest issue. James has played in 56 games this year, while Anthony Davis has played 40. L.A.’s “big three” of James, Davis and Russell Westbrook only started 21 games together this season, going 11–10.
“I think even though we lost games where all of us were on the floor—me, Bron, Russ—I think we’re three great players, but we would have figured it out if we logged more minutes together,” Davis told reporters last night. “But we weren’t able to do that, which makes it tough to be able to compete for a championship when your three best players haven’t logged enough minutes together.”
Others might say that Westbrook was the Lakers’ biggest issue. He’s missed only one game this season (although Lakers fans surely wish he had been sidelined more often) but has been more of a liability than an asset. Los Angeles is expected to try to ship him and his $47 million salary elsewhere this offseason. “All indications are that Westbrook likely will be moved this offseason and that the desire to part ways is assumably mutual,” The Athletic’s Jovan Buha reports.
The failed Westbrook acquisition highlights what may be the Lakers’ real problem: James’s outsized influence on roster building. James and Davis reportedly pushed L.A. general manager Rob Pelinka to trade for Westbrook instead of Buddy Hield. Even at 37, James is still a great player (he’s averaging 30.3 points per game this season), but maybe it’s time for him to leave the roster construction to somebody else.
The best of Sports Illustrated
Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated
For today’s Daily Cover, Michael Rosenberg spent time with Jon Scheyer, who is faced with the unenviable task of replacing Coach K at Duke:
“The Blue Devils’ new coach is only 34. He will be the youngest leader in the ACC by a decade. He has never been in a top job. Beyond an agent, he has never hired or fired anyone. Duke has gone from a coach who writes leadership books to one who reads them.”
This week’s episode of SI Weekly features an Opening Day roundtable with Tom Verducci, Stephanie Apstein and Matt Martell. … Chris Mannix writes that the Lakers “are in ruins” as they stare down the end of a lost season. … Mannix also caught up with Kevin Love to talk about embracing his new role in Cleveland. … Jeremy Woo evaluates the NBA draft stocks of some of March Madness’s biggest stars.
Around the Sports World
Tiger Woods says he’s planning “as of right now” to play in the Masters. … You can see the full list of Thursday tee times here, including Woods’s. … Mike Tyson’s weed company’s ear-shaped gummies can’t be sold in Colorado due a very specific law there. … The Athletic’s Bill Oram spoke with Lakers coach Frank Vogel earlier yesterday about his team’s impending elimination. … Jazz coach Quin Snyder went on a 19-minute rant before yesterday’s game, defending his team against major narratives about Utah’s season. … The producer of the Superdome’s Final Four court says Armando Bacot wasn’t injured by a loose floorboard.
The top five...
… must-see plays from last night:
5. This wacky Little League home run for Vanderbilt baseball
4. This unbelievably terrible 35-second sequence in Nets-Rockets
3. Sadio Mané’s goal for Liverpool in Champions League action against Porto
2. Oilers goalie Mike Smith’s pass to set up Connor McDavid’s overtime game winner
1. LaMelo Ball’s streetball moves in transition
SIQ
After the ratification of baseball’s new labor agreement, this will be the first full MLB season in history in which both leagues will use the designated hitter. (The DH was used in the NL for the shortened 2020 season due to complications caused by the pandemic.) The DH was first used in a regular season game on this date in 1973. The Yankees’ Ron Blomberg was famously the first man to bat as the designated hitter, facing Red Sox starter Luis Tiant in the first inning of their Opening Day game. What was the outcome of Blomberg’s plate appearance?
Yesterday’s SIQ: How many rebounds did Wilt Chamberlain have on April 5, 1967, to set a single-game playoff record?
Answer: 41. Chamberlain played all 48 minutes, recording 20 points and nine assists as the Sixers took a 3–0 lead in the Eastern Division finals against the Celtics. Boston’s Bill Russell had 10 points, nine assists and 29 rebounds.
Looking at the list of the NBA’s all-time single-game rebounding leaders is comical. There have been 56 instances of a player recording at least 38 rebounds in a game. Chamberlain (29) and Russell (23) have 52 of them. (The only other players to have 38 or more rebounds in a game are Nate Thurmond, Jerry Lucas, Neil Johnston and Maurice Stokes.) Russell set the single-game record with 51 in February 1960 but held it for less than a year before Chamberlain had 55 in a game against the Celtics in November of that same year.
Like Chamberlain’s 100-point game, the regular-season and playoff rebounding records seem unbreakable. Since 1989, there have been only 14 30-rebound games and only four since 2010 (by Enes Freedom, Dwight Howard, Andrew Bynum and Love). It seems unfathomable, especially in an era where big men no longer simply camp out in the paint, that one player would rack up dozens of rebounds in a single game.
From the Vault: April 5, 1989
Manny Millan/Sports Illustrated
Until seeing this cover, I had no idea that players and coaches didn’t always use a ladder to cut down the nets after winning a championship. On the one hand, there’s something charmingly antiquated about a group of people hoisting the newly crowned champions on their shoulders to help them cut the net. On the other hand, it’s a little scary to have a guy with a pair of scissors that high in the air above a group of people.
This photo sent me looking for some history on cutting down the nets. According to SB Nation, the tradition began in the 1920s or ’30s with the Indiana high school tournament. In ’47, Everett Case, who had won four high school championships in Indiana, led North Carolina State to the Southern Conference tournament title and cut down the nets (without using a ladder, by the way) as a souvenir.
Cutting the nets is now ubiquitous in college hoops, but it took the NCAA a while to realize it could make money off of it. Ladders are not only the preferred method for elevating oneself off the ground to cut the nets, it’s even a sponsorship opportunity. Since 2008, the NCAA has had both an official ladder (Werner) and scissors (Fiskars) for use during the Division I, II and III men’s and women’s tournaments.
As far as I can tell, the last time someone cut down the nets without a ladder was either NC State’s Jim Valvano in 1983 or Villanova’s Rollie Massimino in ’85. It’s a bit dangerous, but it’s way cooler than the overly branded ceremony we have today.
(As for Indiana’s 1981 title win, behind the exceptional play of Isiah Thomas, you can read Curry Kirkpatrick’s cover story here.)
Check out more of SI’s archives and historic images at vault.si.com.
