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Lakers fans have watched some bad basketball over the last few years. At the end of the 2015-16 season, the team had 17 wins, an all-time franchise-low. Two years before that, they suffered their worst loss in franchise history; a 142-94 loss to the LA Clippers.
And yet, the real fans never wavered. Even when the starting lineup featured the likes of Ryan Kelly, Wesley Johnson and Robert Sacre, the Lakers were ranked in the top-10 in attendance.
This year, with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the Lakers are going to be fun. As a matter of fact, they’re already pretty fun, and they’ve only played four games.
Arguably their most fun game came on Tuesday, when Davis put up a monster stat line of 40 points and 20 rebounds against the Memphis Grizzlies, while James humored the fans with a “Taco Tuesday” chant from the bench. Staples Center was roaring, and the players on the team loved it.
“Any time one of my teammates goes off like that, it’s great to watch. It’s great not only for the individual, but for the fans as well to be a part of a night like that,” James told reporters. “The Laker faithful have been so great to us this season, and I just wanted to show my appreciation.”
James wasn’t the only one getting the crowd involved in the game, though. While Davis was playing, he urged the fans to get loud. Dwight Howard did the same.
“It’s going to be a long season,” Davis said. “You’ve got to have fun with it. That’s the only way you’re going to get through it. Coach ran this whole little thing down about what kind of team we want to be offensively and defensively, and at the end he said ‘most importantly have fun with it.’
“Any time we win, obviously it’s going to be fun. Through it all we want to have fun with it, and obviously that makes it a lot easier.”
Of course, the Lakers still take their pursuit of a playoff spot — and then a championship — seriously, but head coach Frank Vogel doesn’t want to take the fun away from the game if he can help it.
“This is a fun team. Our guys like to work, we understand the importance of it, but it’s still basketball at the end of the day and it should be fun, especially when you’re playing well. Our team is on a run and those guys played well so they deserved it,” Vogel said.
For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. You can follow this author on Twitter at @RadRivas