When there’s a winner, there’s a loser. Sometimes a player can do everything in their power to win a game and still lose. Just as often, a player’s performance can cost their team the game. These players are favorably called bobbleheads.
The Los Angeles Lakers
Getting swept is always embarrassing, even when no one thought you had a shot at winning the series. The Lakers were able to keep the reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander well below his season averages in categories like points per game and field goal percentage for a lot of this series, but it still was not enough.
The first three games of this series were atrocious for the Lakers. They lost by double digits in all three contests, and Lakers fans may complain about bad officiating in this series, but the referees didn’t make center Deandre Ayton shoot 14% from the field in game two. They didn’t cause the 16-3 run in the fourth quarter of game three, and they most certainly didn’t force JJ Reddick to sit forward Rui Hachimura during a pivotal possession late in game four with the season on the line.
Austin Reaves got the dishonor of being featured in last week’s Bobbleheads, but the rest of this series showed how much of a skill gap there was between the Lakers and the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Detroit Tigers: The Pitching Staff
The Tigers have been an interesting team for a few years now. They have made the divisional round of the postseason each of the last two years, and had seemingly righted the ship of the franchise after years of selling at the trade deadline and the emergence of the starting pitcher Tarik Skubal, who has won each of the last two American League Cy Young awards.
Unfortunately, earlier this season, Skubal had a surgery for loose bodies in his elbow, and the rest of the pitching staff has not been able to pick up the slack in his absence. The Tigers have won just 3 of their last 13 games — including a recent sweep at the hands of the New York Mets, who have been one of the worst teams in all of baseball so far this year.
That series had two blowout losses, and though the middle game of the series saw starting pitcher Framber Valdez actually give Detroit a quality start, it still ended in a loss, with the bullpen blowing the game and allowing the Mets to walk the game off in extra innings.
The Philadelphia 76ers: Joel Embiid
Overcoming a 3-1 series deficit against the Boston Celtics was an impressive feat in the first round of this year’s NBA playoffs; however, Philadelphia’s next matchup with the New York Knicks proved that the first round comeback was their personal NBA Finals, and the championship hangover on display in round two was apparent as they got swept to end their season.
This series was never going to be close, and that was apparent in game one when Joel Embiid, a center, went just 3/11 from the field. Despite that, Embiid is the 76ers’ star player and his not-at-all-rare injury was felt in game two, the only close game in this series. Embiid returned for the final two games of this series, in which he received almost zero help from fellow 76ers star Paul George. Even when Embiid had 24 points on 100% shooting in game four, it was too little, too late for him and the 76ers, as the Knicks blew them out by 30 points to complete the sweep. The jokes about Embiid not making it to the conference finals will persist for another year.
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Marley Herndon is a beat reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on X @Dailylobo
