Reacts: Everybody hates the Lakers, but especially their fans

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Each week, we send out questions to the most plugged-in Los Angeles Lakers fans, and fans across the country. Sign up here to join Reacts, and check out DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sportsbook partner of SB Nation.

To say the Lakers have underperformed this season is a massive understatement, and does not properly capture just how disappointing they’ve been. Consistent battles with injuries aside, the Lakers have hardly put up a fight as the season has drug on, resulting in a team that looks to have given up on the season despite (1) there being nearly a month of games remaining and (2) them still being in play-in game range.

It’s a combination that has made the team nearly entirely unwatchable save for the occasional games of brilliance from LeBron James. And when those nights don’t happen, it becomes a group of players that fans have grown to detest. In our latest SB Nations reacts survey, we asked Lakers fans if this is their least favorite Lakers team ever, and the answer was largely a resounding “yes.”

There have been worse teams than these Lakers, especially in recent memory. Many Lakers teams went out with an intention of losing basketball games and did so at impressive rates. But those teams had no expectations, and this Lakers team did.

Again, though, it’s not simply that the Lakers are losing, it’s that they’re doing it without giving a damn. They’ve clearly admitted to themselves that there’s no chance of being contenders, and they don’t intend on fighting to make the best of a bad situation.

Because of that, this team has become unwatchable, and it’s just a countdown to the end of the season when we don’t have to watch this team ever again.

Are the Suns scared of the Lakers?

Anthony Davis made waves this week by offering his unfiltered thoughts on how his injury impacted the playoff series against the Suns last season. There was no need to read between the lines in Davis’ comments, as he made it clear he thought the Suns “got away with one” because of his injury.

It added a little extra tension to a feud between the two teams that, despite recent results being heavily in favor of the Suns, has become a bit of a rivalry. If the Lakers are to somehow miraculously not only retain their play-in spot AND make the playoffs, it would be as an eight seed with a series against the top-seeded Suns.

In that unlikely scenario, Anthony Davis would almost certainly be healthy and contributing but even then, Suns fans don’t seem too worried about the Lakers.

In their defense, the only people who should be worried about this Lakers team are the fans who have to watch this team over a dozen more times. And considering the Suns haven’t lost a game against the lakers in any form since Game 4 of last year’s playoffs, there’s no reason they should be worried about the Lakers.

An incredible amount of hypotheticals would have to come true for the Lakers to even get to the playoffs, and that’s before even factoring in any games the Suns. The last thing on the mind of the Suns should be the Lakers...

...but how great would it be if they actually won?

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