The season that would seemingly never end finally ended on Wednesday night at Staples Center when the LA Lakers lost to the Sacramento Kings. With the loss, the purple and gold made history as the worst team in franchise history with a final record of 21-61, which narrowly edged the 1957/58 Minneapolis Lakers for the worst winning percentage in the two-city history of the Lakers.
Ahead of the season finale, the team announced that standout rookie Jordan Clarkson would sit out the finale due to a sprained ankle sustained in Monday's loss to the same Kings team. Also, the team confirmed that Wesley Johnson would miss out with the same injury sustained in Sunday's loss to the Dallas Mavericks.
"Hilarious," was the word Lakers coach Byron Scott used on Wednesday morning, when asked to describe the series of injuries that had ruined all 82 games of the Lakers' 2014/15 season.
With the pair of starters ruled out, the Lakers only had two guards on the roster: Vander Blue and Jabari Brown. Not familiar with Brown and Blue? Well, Blue had only joined the team in an emergency situation two days earlier, and Brown had been added near the end of the season in order to fill a need.
The Lakers did not have any backups for their two unlikely starters, and they had power forward Ryan Kelly deputizing as a starting small forward. With only three big men available off the bench, the Lakers did not have any options in the backcourt. They also, apparently, did not have any chance of winning on Wednesday.
By the end of the first quarter, the Kings already had 33 points on the board, and defense did not appear to be in the program Wednesday night. By halftime, the Kings had scored 67 points. Predictably, the Lakers trailed at that point, as the home team simply did not have enough points on the roster.
With Blue, Carlos Boozer and Jordan Hill all in double figures in scoring by halftime, the Lakers managed to get to 53 points and trail by 14 at the break. That could not last.
In the second half, the Lakers cooled off, but the lack of defense due to limited available personnel continued to allow the Kings easy access to open looks. In the third quarter, the Lakers trailed by as many as 19 points as the visitors continued to pour it on.
However, eventually, the Kings lost the ability to knock down open looks for an elongated stretch because, well, they're not a good team, either. However, they were a better team than the Lakers on this night. After cutting the lead to 11 points, the Lakers again fell behind by 19 points at the end of three quarters.
At that point, the Lakers' season only had one quarter to go, and not much need be said about those final 12 minutes. For the 61st time in 82 games, the Lakers tasted defeat. The season fittingly ended as a loss, and this will go down as the worst season in their storied history.
It's finally over. Good riddance.
