Lakers eliminated from playoff contention

Nothing in life is guaranteed — but LeBron James usually makes the playoffs.

However, this year's postseason will be different, after the Los Angeles Lakers were eliminated from playoff contention following a 121-110 loss at Phoenix on Tuesday, essentially putting an end to a tumultuous season for James, Anthony Davis, head coach Frank Vogel and the rest of the Lakers organization.

In 19 professional seasons, James has missed the playoffs only four times: the first two seasons of his career in Cleveland, the 2018-19 season — his first in L.A. — and now, this season. 

Three of James' four seasons in L.A. have ended unceremoniously. He missed 27 games in his inaugural Tinseltown campaign in 2018-19, and the Lakers finished 10th in the West at 37-45. 

However, the next year, the Lakers won the bubble championship in Orlando, Florida. 

Last year, things again took a dip. L.A. finished 42-30 and won the 7-8 play-in game to earn the seventh seed in the playoffs, before losing to Phoenix in six games in the first round.

Now … this.

"Our goal was to win the championship," said Davis after the game. "We had the pieces. But injuries got In the way."

Injuries indeed affected L.A., and no player was more affected than Davis, the eight-time All-Star who played just his 39th game of the season on Tuesday, after playing only 36 regular-season games last season.

Davis, in his 10 professional seasons, has never played 82 games in a year, and has only played over 70 games twice. 

As for James, the injury bug struck him for the second consecutive year. He played only 45 games last season, and so far this season, he's at 56. He's missed five of the Lakers' last seven games, including Tuesday, and chances are he could shut it down for the season, considering L.A. has only two games remaining.

Still, throwing the Lakers' health issues out the window, future Hall of Fame forward Carmelo Anthony said after the game, "You can't make no excuses about it. We just didn't get it done."

Going back to James, individually, he had a remarkable year. 

"The Chosen One" is currently averaging 30.3 points (second-most of his career), 8.2 rebounds (fourth-most of his career), and 6.2 assists, all while shooting 52.4% from the field. 

Those gaudy numbers were not enough to propel L.A. into the postseason however, and as has been the case throughout the season, many fingers will point at the play of Russell Westbrook during his first season in L.A.

Also a future Hall of Famer, Westbrook has had a mercurial season. For instance, on Tuesday, he registered 28 points on 10-for-20 shooting, along with five rebounds and three assists. But he also tallied six turnovers. 

On Sunday against Denver, Westbrook tallied 27 points (on 11-for-15 shooting), 10 rebounds and seven assists with only two turnovers. But on Friday against New Orleans, "The Brodie" scored 12 points on 5-for-15 shooting, with four rebounds and five assists, but only a single turnover, while fouling out.

Westbrook's 3.8 turnovers per game are sixth-most in the NBA among players who have played at least 60 games.

After the game, Westbrook, similar to Davis, lamented the Lakers' injury woes.

But, the plan was also for the Lakers to make the playoffs this season and challenge for a title, meaning whatever plan L.A. had by combining James, Davis, Westbrook and others under Vogel is presumably, subject to a long offseason review — one that will begin much sooner than anyone in Hollywood thought it would.

It's a development that's left much of the town – and the neighboring sporting world, in shock.

Chris Broussard went as far as calling it the team's worst season ever, especially given the title expectations the squad had prior to opening night.

"Once they won that championship in the bubble, I thought AD was going to go to another level," Broussard said Wednesday on "First Things First."

"It's happened with players before: You get the monkey off your back, now you don't have the pressure of winning a championship, and you ascend. That was the plan: He ascends, LeBron becomes the second guy and they'd still be able to compete for titles. But he has gone the other way, and what it tells me is that he was content. He's complacent."

He went on to lament the Westbrook trade.

"You tried to give LeBron the benefit of the doubt. But every basketball instinct in my being was like ‘there’s no way. This can't work.'"

Nick Wright had no mercy for their troubles, or for Anthony Davis.

"It's historically unprecedented," he exclaimed.

"We started doing Vegas odds in 1985. Since then, the top two teams, preseason odds-wise, every single year, have made the playoffs. Everyone involved has to wear it to varying degrees. I don't know what's happened to AD. But it's not just injuries. His last year in New Orleans, he went for 35-plus 10 times. The year before, he did it 17 times, and his first year for the Lakers, he did it nine times. Three times all year, he had a game score of 30. Embiid's done it close to 30."

Skip Bayless heaped criticism on James, calling him the "phoniest GOAT there ever was" on "Undisputed."

"This was the team picked before the season by the oddsmakers to win it all. It revolved around LeBron Raymone James Sr. This team was by all accounts loaded to start the year, and LeBron pushed for Russell Westbrook, to the detriment of DeMar Derozan, Buddy Hield, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Alex Caruso."

"He deserves to win the award for worst GM. They're 17 games under .500. That is incomprehensibly, inexcusably bad. 75% of the blame has to be dumped at the doorstep of LeBron James. They were only four games under at the All-Star break. Since then, they go 4-17. At the expense of his team, he just said ‘I'm going to go win the scoring title' and only averaged 5.5 assists."