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Things are not going well for LeBron James and Kevin Durant and their respective teams. Heading into the season, the LA Lakers and Brooklyn Nets were favorites to play for the NBA title, but they are currently holding play-in tournament spots.
The two superstars played significant roles in putting together teams they believed could contend for a championship. But that has not worked out well for either of them so far.
In Los Angeles (31-42), LeBron is recording monster performances but does not get enough production from his supporting cast.
It has been much of the same in Brooklyn (38-35) for KD, who has had to play with a disgruntled James Harden and a part-time Kyrie Irving. (A change in New York City's vaccine mandate Thursday will allow Irving to be a full-time player. Harden is now in Philadelphia after being traded for Ben Simmons, who has not played this season.)
Sports analyst Nick Wright on the "What's Wright?" podcast spoke about the Lakers' and Nets' situations and has plenty of blame to go around. He believes both superstars put themselves in their current positions and have nothing to do with player empowerment.
"They both did choose this situation," Wright said. "So, one could argue, yeah ... player empowerment has cost them. I think that is too narrow of a view, because player empowerment is not only what got LeBron to the Lakers, but Anthony Davis to the Lakers. And they did win a title two seasons ago. So, it worked out for him there.
"Player empowerment not only got KD to the Nets, but Kyrie (Irving) there with him, and (James) Harden there with him. And everyone except me thought that team was going to win a bunch of titles. What really killed KD and LeBron is not player empowerment, it's they chose the wrong point guard.
"LeBron chose Russell Westbrook, and that has submarined this Lakers season even though Russ has played better as of late. And KD chose the least reliable star in sports, Kyrie Irving."
In the end, he said, they both made the wrong choices even as they had a big say in deciding who to play with. In James' case, Wright believes his ego and wanting to achieve what no one else could with Westbrook put him and the Lakers in this precarious position.
Both LeBron James and Kevin Durant will have to secure their playoff berths through the play-in tournament
The Nets are in a better position, as they are currently eighth in the Eastern Conference and could only play one play-in game to secure their playoff berth. With Kyrie Irving back to playing full-time, the Nets' chances of perhaps climbing to sixth – and avoid the play-in games – have increased. But they're still slim
Brooklyn has nine games remaining. Irving will be able to play in all nine (as opposed to just two before the New York City restriction was lifted.) Still, the Nets trail the sixth-place Cleveland Cavaliers (41-31) by 3.5 games.
The seventh-place Toronto Raptors (40-32) are 2.5 games ahead of Brooklyn. If the postseason began today, Brooklyn would have to play at Toronto in the Seven-Eight Game. Because of Canadian laws, Irving can't play in Toronto.
The winner of the Seven-Eight Game gets the No. 7 seed in the playoffs and will face whoever wins the for the No. 2 seed, which could be any of four teams. The loser gets another chance, facing the winner of the Nine-Ten Game for the No. 8 seed.
Brooklyn leads the ninth-place Charlotte Hornets (37-36) by one game and the Atlanta Hawks (36-37) by two games. A slip could put the Nets in the Nine-Ten Game.
For the Lakers, they are at risk of getting knocked out of the top 10. They are ninth in the West. But the 10th-place New Orleans Pelicans (30-42) and San Antonio Spurs (29-44) are close behind. The Pels are a half-game behind the Lakers and play them twice before the season ends. The Spurs are two games back.
The Lakers are 4.5 games behind the eighth-place LA Clippers (36-38), so they likely won't make the Seven-Eight Game. That being the case, they'll have to win two play-in games to nab the No. 8 seed, which will likely face the Phoenix Suns (59-14).
It will be a tough journey for both teams, but with the caliber of players they have, neither of them can be written out just yet. James is currently the league's top scorer, averaging 30.0 points per game. Meanwhile, KD is averaging 29.7 ppg and would be a contender for the scoring title if he had played as many games to be eligible.
Guess the Lakers players!
