Back on January 31st, the Los Angeles Lakers had a record of 24-25. They had just lost a road game to the Atlanta Hawks, their 4th loss in 7 games, giving them a 9-14 record since the middle of December as they floundered in the NBA standings. They were tied for 9th place in the Western Conference, just 1.5 games up on the Houston Rockets who were sitting in the 10th and final playoff spot.
NBA: Lakers Surging Since James Tweeted Emoji
The Lakers since LeBron tweeted this on January 31:
6-1 pic.twitter.com/J8MANZ4zRh
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) February 15, 2024
As LeBron James (presumably) laid in his hotel room that night, during the 3am hour, he sent out a tweet that featured a single emoji: an hour glass
I was just the latest in cryptic social media posts from the league’s all-time leading scorer, and was assumed that it meant some kind of move was coming. It is usually around the end of January, as the trade deadline approaches, when James’ teams make the necessary moves to compete down the home stretch of the season. Given the losing tendencies of the Lakers over the previous month and a half, it seemed like the writing was on the wall for a big move to go down within the organization.
But the trade deadline came and went without Los Angeles making any major moves to shake up their core, and Darvin Ham is still the head coach of the team. And the Lakers are winning basketball games.
Big Game Against Golden State Next Week
LEBRON JAMES 🤯 pic.twitter.com/MSpBlCPv42
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) February 14, 2024
Since that night in Atlanta, few NBA teams have been on a hotter streak. Starting with a win over the league-leading Boston Celtics (a game that both James and Anthony Davis sat out for), Los Angeles has now won 6 of their lat 7 games, with the only loss coming to the defending champion Denver Nuggets.
They haven’t been able to move up much in the standings during their mini-spurt, but they’ve closed the gap on the teams in front of them, and widened it for the ones behind. They are still in 9th place, but are just 3.5 games behind the Pelicans, who sit in the idol 6th spot. Their lead on the Warriors, whom they play with their first game out of the All-Star break, is currently a full two games.
After playing against Golden State, the Lakers will take on Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs, which will be followed with a tough two-game set against the Suns and Clippers.
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