The Los Angeles Lakers had a chance with the game on the line against the Orlando Magic. The game was tied up at 99 with under a minute left. D'Angelo Russell and the youngsters had a chance to get a "signature" moment closing out a game together. Then the timeout came.
The Lakers had 25.5 seconds of clock to play with, leaving only potentiall 1.5 seconds for the Magic if they forced a shot clock violation. Then, they did. Byron Scott dialed up a clock-draining possession which featured Russell warming up the rock until it was time to pass the ball to Lou Williams, who waved off a screen and ended up throwing up a wild airball after failing to create for himself.
Here it is, in all of its glory:
This is all the Lakers had to throw at the Magic with a victory in the balance? It's a sad microcosm of where this team is as far as execution, and though it's not that surprising, it's no less disappointing. They could have ran a high screen and hoped for the best. The could have ran some -- any -- kind of off-ball movement to create a shot opportunity. They could have put up just about any reasonable shot, hit the rim, and let the clock at least trickle into overtime.
There was one way for this team to lose, essentially, and this horrible call out of timeout somehow fell right into it. Nikola Vucevic may have made an incredibly tough shot with only 1.5 seconds to let it go, but the Lakers brought this loss on themselves with this horrendous possession.