LOS ANGELES — The 2018-19 season is over for the Lakers, and their last 10 games are one final death rattle. But even with the team officially eliminated from playoff contention — and in all honestly pretty doomed for weeks before that — they seem intent on making their final words a scream rather than a whisper, because the team is frustrated with unfinished business, feeling as if this roster could have been so much more than it was if not for injuries.
Some may disagree with that, more blaming the lack of shooting, or other external factors like trade rumors, but a frustration with bad injury luck has been the consistent message coming from the locker room, both in words and in play over the last two games, contests in which the Lakers’ defense has kicked back in with literally their best consecutive efforts in months.