08 April 2023 , 20:49
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After a 2-10 start to the season, the Los Angeles Lakers secured themselves a winning year this campaign after defeating the Phoenix Suns on Friday night.
It's been a huge turnaround for the Lakers after their woeful start to the season, with LeBron James and Anthony Davis looking destined to miss the Play-Offs for the second straight season.
It's been a rough go around for James, Davis and the Lakers ever since winning the championship in 2020, being eliminated in the first round in 2021 before missing the post-season entirely last year.
Going into this season, the Lakers were being written off after not being able to make too many moves to improve during the off-season.
And after a poor start to the year, it looked like the writing was on the wall for another disappointing season. Heading into the All-Star break, the Lakers had been desperate to make a few trades as they sat with the third worst record in the Western Conference.
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After failing to swing a deal for Kyrie Irving, the Lakers were eventually able to trade away Russell Westbrook, Patrick Beverley and Thomas Bryant, in exchange for D'Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura and Mo Bamba - all who have made big improvements to the team.
Since then, the Lakers have been one of the hottest teams in the conference and are now on the brink of a Play-Off spot - sparing James and Davis' blushes.
And both superstars have thanked and credited the traded players for the turnaround.
Davis and LeBron have been in brighter spirits recentlyJames said: "We’ve turned this thing around. And it’s the regular season, obviously, there’s a lot more basketball to be played. But to know that we’re going to finish a few games above .500? It’s pretty cool."
Davis added: "The way we started, 0-5 … then 2-10 — who would’ve thought we would’ve finished the season above .500?
"We were joking with some of the other guys. Everybody was like, ‘Yeaahh!’ We pointed to some guys and were like, ‘We thank y’all. It didn’t look like we were going that way to start the season.’
"We just kept pushing and kept grinding. And obviously, the guys that were able to come in here and help us get some more wins and ultimately finish about .500."