The 2016-17 NBA season hasn’t been kind to the Los Angeles Lakers. After a blistering start that saw them at .500 at the end of November, the wheels fell off and the team has won just 10 of their next 51 games.
The short-lived burst of success only served to remind everyone of what the Lakers had been missing for the last handful of years. That old familiar buzz was in the air again as rookie head coach Luke Walton’s team gritted their way to surprising victories. For that spell, it felt like basketball finally had returned to Los Angeles.