"I'm proud of this Lakers team this season" - Jeanie Buss comments LA Lakers' efforts to reach the playoffs
LeBron James' LA Lakers are on the cusp of reaching the Western Conference semifinals despite a 2-10 start to the season.
In a People magazine article by Natasha Dyer, Lakers president Jeanie Buss praised the team for getting to where it is, considering how the Lakers began.
"I'm proud of this Lakers team this season," Buss said. "We started off poorly, and it would've been easy to give up. These guys committed to each other and really came in the second half of the season and made a nice playoff push, which is really what the fans want."
The Lakers secured a hard-fought 117-111 overtime victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday to take a commanding 3-1 series lead. They have a chance to win their first playoff series since 2020 with a Game 5 victory on Wednesday.
During the first half of the season, the Lakers went 27-32, struggling to execute quality offense and leaving their defense vulnerable and penetrable.
The roster at the time was lackluster in depth. But Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka acquired Rui Hachimura, D'Aneglo Russell, Jared Vanderbilt and Dennis Schroder to bolster the team.
From being at the bottom in the Western Conference, LA secured a spot in the play-in tournament. There, the Lakers handled their business against the Minnesota Timberwolves, punching their way into the playoffs as the seventh seed.
LeBron James on the Lakers' huge Game 4 win
After the 117-111 overtime win in Game 4, LeBron James spoke with TNT's Chris Haynes about his 20-20 performance.
"I don’t know where I found the legs, honestly,” James said. "But understanding how great of a rebounding team they are, it’s very important that we try to try to clean the glass when they miss. And we still gave up 16 offensive rebounds for 24 second-chance points. So, we still got to do a better job of that, but just trying to do my part."
James considers his 20 points and 20 rebounds performance a nice addition to his illustrious career but placed emphasis on doing whatever he could to help his team win. James focused on doing many of the little things to allow his teammates to be themselves on the court.
The team has had tremendous contributions from almost everyone on the roster. D'Angelo Russell's timely 3-pointers gave the team life as he had 17 points on 7-for-15 shooting, including 3-for-8 from deep. Russell wasn't the only one to make one timely bucket after another as Austin Reaves dropped 23 points on 7-for-16 shooting, including 2-for-5 from 3-point range.
The Lakers have a golden opportunity to close out this series in five games and get some rest before the next matchup.