Lakers News: Charles Barkley Critical Of Lakers Front Office After Loss To Clippers
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The Round Mound of Rebound remains unimpressed by this year’s Lakers.
While your Los Angeles Lakers were in the midst of their 123-109 loss to the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center on Tuesday, Charles Barkley quickly pounced on the club, proclaiming even at half time in that contest, “First of all, the Lakers stink, we can get that out of the way.” He proceeded to shred L.A. for having “taken all [Russell Westbrook’s] joy for life and basketball.”
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Though L.A. was only trailing by 59-52 at the time, it was clear that Golden State was gearing up for a run. The Warriors turned on the jets in the third quarter, outscoring the Lakers 32-19. After a fake run at the start of the fourth frame, the game was indeed out of reach for Los Angeles. Poor outside shooting ultimately doomed the team.
Last night against the Los Angeles Clippers at both team’s shared home of Crypto.com Arena, it almost looked like the Lakers were going to steal a victory from a heavily-favored Clippers club many think could make the Finals this season. Instead, Darvin Ham played Westbrook late in the quarter, L.A.’s offense froze up, and the Clippers did just enough to close them out. The Clippers won the first “Battle of L.A.” this season, 103-97.
It just happened to be the second game of tonight’s Thursday TNT slate, meaning Barkley had the opportunity to reiterate his feelings about the Lake Show.
During Turner’s Inside The NBA postgame broadcast, Barkley kicked things off with a bang:
This season’s L.A. roster does, on paper, look a bit better than last year’s geriatric (in basketball terms) personnel, but it still seems that team vice president Rob Pelinka has once again failed to properly surround stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis with enough help to do more than be a fringe play-in team. Should Pelinka eventually trade Westbrook for some additional pieces, perhaps we’ll have to reassess.
Later on in the broadcast, Barkley explained his thinking, pointing to the team’s flawed roster construction:
Barkley did not mince words:
“Last year and this year, what they’re putting around LeBron is an embarrassment. Last year they put all [those] geezers around him. And what they got out there around him right now — somebody’s not doing their job in L.A., period.”
Here’s hoping the L.A. front office can make a move soon to offload the Westbrook contract.