Just tucked in the misses to bed, waiting for midnight to hit this week’s Falcon & Winter Soldier. Really intrigued so far, like the trade-off of less episodes for longer individual runtimes, not to say the more drawn-out approach didn’t help WandaVision’s suspense levels, but this format I’m in on for sure.

But while we’re both here, let’s talk about the Lakers, who even I, one of the most optimistic, unapologetically apologetic fans out there, am leaning off the cliff edge ready to plummet into an abyss of sadness after tonight’s game.

They lost 109-101 after rallying late against an Embiid-less Sixers team, and got fucking cooked by Twitter legend and former Laker Danny Green all night. They’re 0-4 since Solomon Hill nose-tackled LeBron’s leg, and have a daunting remaining schedule, most of which will obviously be played with James or Anthony Davis.

I liked how the half-court sets looked with an abbreviated Marc Gasol back out there. Having Dennis literally account for nearly every offense anything on the floor has been rough to watch, even though he’s done well attacking the basket and finding shooters, just feel for the guy when he’s frustrated. A sneaky nice game tonight for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope tonight too, and Kuz was Kuz.

But LA played one abysmal quarter in the 3rd, and that was enough to sink them. And asking such a depleted team to play a perfect game night in and night out is a lot to ask of any NBA roster. I mean pick one out a hat and take away their two best players and they’re doomed, let alone the team that’s sporting two top-5 guys.

A few things to look forward to though, some good news.

Gasol’s return will spell some offense woes in terms of ball movements and overall IQ out there, and defensively he’s back as the team’s lone 7-footer; I assume the answer for not retaining Damian Jones is because the Lakers feel strongly about their chances to get Andre Drummond via the buyout, among others who I am pondering over (no use keeping Olynyk, Houston).

The Lakers next two games are very winnable, with Cleveland tomorrow and then Orlando Sunday, the latter of whom Shanghai’d every competent player they have to start their rebuild.

And lastly, the aforementioned buyout market, as the Lakers can scour over the sea of potential fits to maybe fill some holes on the roster at the moment.

The bad news is, there’s a significant chance that none of this saves the Lakers from the free fall caused by the absence of their two injured stars.

The remaining schedule would’ve been tough with a completely healthy Laker roster, let alone the one we just watched.

Drummond is the popular name connected with LA to fill the need of another 7-footer to grab boards and provide defensive insurance against the other bigs would potentially see down the line in a playoff run, but is he really going to just answer all of our questions for us?

Yeah, you can pencil him in for 12-15 rebounds a night. You can count on him to compete every contest, too. But he’s not really a screen and roll guy that can play off of LeBron or Schröder offensively. And I don’t know how their previous meetings went off top, but Embiid has owned Drummond every time they’ve seen each other, so why wouldn’t Jokic in a series?

I think your best case scenario with nabbing Drummond is he spells the team during this star-less period, and his production is enough to either keep you closer in some of these games to potentially squeak by of, or secure beating the lesser teams left on your schedule, and there ain’t much.

We saw last year GM Rob Pelinka go for chemistry and low-risk, high reward guys like Markieff Morris, Dion Waiters, and JR Smith via the buyout last year, and even though Morris was really the only one who helped the team on the floor, the minor tweaks were ultimately more beneficial than any home run swings.

The Lakers were in on Kyle Lowry down to the last breath, but I wasn’t high on getting him if it meant losing Schröder, who I would love to see the Lakers sign long-term at this season’s end to run with AD for awhile when LeBron finally slows down. Or Talen-Horton Tucker, for that matter, being the only young asset with genuine, visible upside the Lakers have.

But alas, the buyout market is always a gamble, and with Bron and AD hurt, LA might not look as attractive to some of these dudes. But we’ll see.

Back to the schedule, there are two single matchups left against the Bucks, Nets, and Heat, in terms of East teams that you can pencil in as losses. Knicks and Raps twice will be far from walks in the park too as they’re good solid and battling to maintain themselves in the East. West foes include Clips twice, Mavs twice, Jazz twice, and Kings twice, which somehow always get weird. And sprinkle in single-game matchups with Boston, Denver and Phoenix as well.

And the end all kicker? All these games, with a few exceptions, are, as the info we’ve been given stands, to definitely be played with LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

Just eyeballing and taking into account we may not see a fully healthy team until May, I count 7-8 of the 27 games left to be likely wins for the current roster. And if that holds, the now 28-17 Lakers would finish, at best, 36-34.

That’s fucking horrifying, considering the two teams directly behind LA, Denver and Portland, got better today at the trade deadline. Not to mention Dallas and San Antonio are always tough outs, regular season or post.

So yeah, it’s looking real dark here in Lakerland, barring a team-wide saddle up to fight for some gutsy wins until their two horses can return.

It would be a shame to be robbed of all the excitement and hype we had just a month or so ago, dreaming of star-studded playoff battles that would eventually see the Lakers and Nets face off in the Finals, with plenty of fantastic NBA drama in the rounds prior, by injuries.

It’s going to come down to that pesky buyout market, and whether the Lakers can sell some vets or lost toys that if they want to win a ring, despite the injuries, this is still the best place to do it.

Until something happens, hope everyone’s still grinding through COVID, getting vacc’d and masking up so we can be done with this stupid thing and I can eat 5 tubs of movie popcorn at a movie.

No debate: no bagged, microwave popcorn on any shelf in any store on this Earth is the same as what they scoop me at the theater. So let’s get me back there, yeah?

I’ll probably see you guys again once the Giants Opening Day roster is finalized, we’ll talk some people who didn’t make the team, some young guys I like, the whole nine.

Get well Bron. Get well AD.

Cheers.