Official Lakers Twitter tries to put positive spin on worst half ever
The 2014-15 Los Angeles Lakers are not very good, but for the first two months of the season the franchise and its fans could at least look forward to the iconic Kobe Bryant’s pursuit of several major milestones and records. However, after Sunday’s passing of Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list, Kobe doesn’t have any more marks in his imminent future. In other words, the Lakers are going to have to find other sources of positivity as the team slouches its way towards the lottery.
Their first effort did not go very well. Monday’s road game against the Indiana Pacers went very poorly, with the Lakers shooting a paltry 16.3 percent from the field on their way to a 60-27 halftime deficit, the franchise’s worst first half since moving to Los Angeles in 1960. It would seem very difficult to find any silver lining to such a mess, but the team’s official Twitter account did its best:
The second one could be the greatest tweet in the medium’s history. There’s just so much here — the idea that scoring seven points in the opening 18 minutes is especially impressive, the underplayed admission of failure, etc. It’s as if someone turned this classic “The Simpsons” moment into pure Twitter joy:
When the half finally ended, our fearless social media manager made the mistake of thinking that highlighting a strong close would provide some hope heading into the final 24 minutes. Instead, it just served to emphasize how much the Lakers had failed:
The Lakers performed significantly better in the second half and ended up with a 110-91 loss to the Pacers, a sorry but not historically terrible showing. As things improved, though, the official Twitter account happened upon arguably the greatest image for this season’s Lakers:
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but these 107 characters do the trick just fine. What else do you need to talk about this team? There’s a generationally excellent player doing something impressive in isolation, with his trademark intensity, despite his team losing by 23 points in the second half. A photo would need the score and time remaining in the background to communicate the same.
Remember when I said fans might need to search long and far for a reason to enjoy this team? Based on Monday’s performance, I think we have found that necessary silver lining for the rest of the Lakers’ season. Their official Twitter account is a must-follow.
– – – – – – –
Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
