On Sunday night, the Lakers saw their 22-game win streak against the Minnesota Timberwolves snapped as Kevin Love and Kevin Martin went super nova in the first quarter of the game, and leaving the Lakers struggling to chip away at the lead in the remaining three quarters.
On Tuesday night, the Lakers saw another streak snapped despite winning against the New Orleans Pelicans going away, according to Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding.
Other numbers revealed a devastating Lakers loss.
The Lakers’ 320-game home sellout streak ended when Staples wound up 571 spectators shy of the 18,997 capacity for the game against the New Orleans Pelicans.
A Lakers game not selling out?! It hadn’t happened for seven years (Dec. 6, 2006 against the Oklahoma City/New Orleans Hornets). That was so long ago that the NBA was using what wound up as a temporary new microfiber composite basketball—and Smush Parker, Kwame Brown, Luke Walton and Lamar Odom joined Kobe Bryant in the Lakers’ starting lineup.
Without Kobe Bryant on the floor and the team struggling to play .500 basketball, the fans haven’t been as eager to head to Staples Center to watch a lackluster Lakers team. And considering what Anthony Davis and the Pelicans did to the Lakers on Friday night, Lakers fans may not have wanted to see another devastating blowout and all-star performance from the Pelicans’ big man.
Even with the Lakers lacking star-power due to injury (even Steve Nash is slated to miss, at the very least, two weeks) Lakers fans who attended the game were treated with a spectacular performance that saw Jordan Hill have a career night with the first 20-10 game of his career and Xavier Henry throw down what is arguably the best dunk of this young NBA season.
Even without Bryant and Nash, this Lakers team still has some players who can put on a great show for those in attendance, and just because this isn’t the NBA’s typical Lakers team, there shouldn’t be a reason why fans fail to watch the team perform at Staples Center. The streak ended at 320, which means that it’s just time to start a new one.
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Xavier Henry On Shutting Down Anthony Davis and Denver Game