The legacy of the Los Angeles Lakers is one of the greatest in all sports. With 16 championships the Lakers have more titles than any other team in the NBA. Each year the Lakers are held to a higher standard than other teams because of their infamous legacy. 

Headed into the 2022-23 NBA season Laker fans had high hopes for the ability of their team. With players like LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the team they had every reason to be confident. But unfortunately the Lakers did not have the hot start that they were looking for. In their first 25 games of the season the Lakers went 10-15, a very disappointing start.

“I had no faith in the Lakers this season, I just assumed that Antony Davis would get injured again and they wouldn’t do anything significant,” senior, Ethan Rivera, said.

Many people began to doubt the Lakers saying that their era of championship basketball was over. One of the contributing factors to the team’s struggles was Anthony Davis’ injury. Davis suffered from foot problems throughout the entirety of the season and missed 26 games.

The Lakers continued to play poorly up until the All-Star break in which they were 27-32. This put them as the 13 seed in the Western Conference and even missing the play-in tournament. Analysts and fans would bash the Lakers stating that they needed to start a rebuild and give up. 

But the Lebron led Lakers weren’t ready to throw in the towel just yet. With Anthony Davis back on the court they were ready to make a run back into the playoff picture. The Lakers put a string of wins together post all star break going 16-7 in their last 23 games to give them the seventh seed in the Western Conference. 

“It was really crazy to watch them climb the standings and make their way back into the playoffs,” senior, Tanner Covington, said.

The Lakers faced the Minnesota Timberwolves in their play-in game, and beat them in a close overtime battle. This set them up to play against the number 2 seed Memphis Grizzlies, who were a young team full of energy and talked a loud game.

The Grizzlies had home court advantage in this series so the first two games would be in Memphis. But the Los Angeles Lakers didn’t care about that, storming into Memphis they beat the Grizzlies in game one to assert their dominance. They would lose game two of the series, but that didn’t matter.

The Lakers defended their home court and won both games against the Grizzlies to take a 3-1 series lead. After this the series was essentially over, the Lakers would win this series in 6 games and prove all of the mid-season doubters wrong.

They are now facing the defending NBA champions the Golden State Warriors. As they currently hold a 1-0 lead over the Warriors their chances of making it to the Finals looks bright. We will see if the Lakers can continue their legacy of dominance.