The reasons for the historic failure of the Lakers

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The torture is over for the Lakers as it could not be otherwise, as they had been proclaiming during a season that will forever remain in the collection of greatest failures in NBA history.

A derision in

's resume : it's not that he won't be able to fight for his fifth ring, it's that he won't even, for the second time in his entire career, play in the playoffs.

Neither the playoffs nor the play-ins.

It was the Suns, with LeBron injured on the bench, the mathematical executor, although it was only a matter of time.

His depressing fall to the abyss -three wins in the last 16 games- had limited the chances of the Angelenos, advanced in the table by some Spurs who not even in their wildest dreams would have imagined such an occasion.

That Phoenix was the one that activated the guillotine, the current runner-up the day he signed his historical record of wins in the regular season (63), is also symptomatic, since those from Arizona represent the strength;

the fresh air, even if it comes from the desert, as opposed to the grayness of Hollywood.

To measure the fall, you have to put into perspective the ambitions of a franchise that just a year and a half ago won the ring in the Disney World bubble.

With the same

on the bench that everyone already considers finished.

So, in the couple formed by LeBron and

, it was believed that a dynasty was intuited.

Nothing is further from reality.

Well, last year they verified their 'new normality', accessing the horn of the new play-in to the fight for the ring and falling at the first opportunity.

A circumstance that ended up disrupting everything that was to come: his movements in the summer, the main reason for everything else along with injuries, were nonsense.

Westbrook, the appointed

Instead of physical power and youth, LeBron chose to surround himself with experience and outdated glamour.

The Lakers, who only kept three players, were attended by

, in a squad with a past aroma that never worked.

Although the main one pointed out, the man with whom the criticism was fed, was

.

"A lot of things happened this year, but personally I don't like to point the finger," the point guard admitted after the debacle.

For him - and his $44 million contract - to arrive they had to run out of bench depth (

left...).

And to surround the new Big Three came

... minimum wage veterans and already with all the best games of their careers played.

And it never worked, despite the fact that LeBron's thunderous personal season (30.3 points, 8.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game) at 37 years old -curiously, he opts for the honor of being the top scorer, something he only achieved in 2008, 23 years old - and the benevolence of the calendar will lead to misleading results at the start of the course.

Because the injuries were the final blow.

LeBron, Davis and Westbrook have only been able to play 21 games together (11 wins).

"Our goal was to win the title, but then we had injuries and the situation changed. We lost games, but we are three great players and we would find a way to get ahead," the center was honest, totally below expectations.

All that mixture of catastrophic misfortunes, in contrast to the power of a West of bells in which the progression of groups such as the Grizzlies or the recovery of the Warriors attracts attention, has destroyed the identity of the Lakers.

Not a trace of their defensive power -they have reaped the worst numbers in their history in that section-, for something unprecedented: a LeBron team had never lost 48 games.

It is hard to find comparisons to the hit of a legendary franchise.

The predictions placed the Lakers, whose squad is valued at 164 million dollars -the fourth highest salary in the entire NBA-, as the second favorite for the ring and it had never happened that a team with such expectations had not even qualified for the playoffs.

"We are disappointed, but there was no lack of commitment. We have worked a lot, but we are eliminated and we are disappointed right now," concluded a Vogel who will be the first to suffer the consequences.

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