L.A. Lakers' 2012-13 Collapse as Told by Mike D'Antoni's Facial Expressions
Want to know a surefire way to tell how the Los Angeles Lakers are faring if you can't catch the score?
Just take a peek at Mike D'Antoni's face.
The Lakers boss is as facially expressive as they come, habitually running the gamut from mirth to fury to despair. The look on his face is a telltale sign of how things are going.
This season in particular wasn't full of easy smiles and hearty chuckles. Frustration and anger were prevalent, but mostly D'Antoni looked forlorn and defeated, as his team suffered disappointment after disappointment.
This collage of D'Antoni expressions captures the essence of the Lakers' tumultuous campaign.
A New Beginning
1 of 6Things started off so rosy.
Back in early November when the Lakers fired Mike Brown, the season was still young and Brown was the perfect scapegoat for the team stumbling out of the gate.
Phil Jackson was always the sentimental favorite to replace Brown, but Mike D'Antoni seemed like a splendid choice given his track record for offensive production and the loathing everyone had for Brown's Princeton offense.
Besides, how can you possibly screw up when you're coaching four future Hall of Famers?
The effect was immediate, as the Lakers went 4-1 under interim skipper Bernie Bickerstaff as they awaited D'Antoni's arrival.
Los Angeles even won its first game with D'Antoni at the helm to make it five out of six and get over .500 for the first time.
Sadly, the Lakers wouldn't reach those lofty heights again until mid-March.
Rock Bottom
2 of 6Two months into the Mike D'Antoni era, the Lakers bottomed out at eight games under .500 (17-25) after an awful stretch where they lost 10 of 12.
At that point things looked hopeless and the season seemed all but lost. The Lakers were hampered by injuries and still had no identity or even a steady rotation.
Dwight Howard's departure became a foregone conclusion in the media and the first whisperings of canning D'Antoni surfaced.
It was a bleak time for the Purple and Gold, but they managed to turn it around. Some of the credit even has to do to D'Antoni, who finally crystallized his rotation, unearthed Earl Clark and adapted his run-and-shoot system to coordinate more with his personnel.
Don't Call It a Comeback
3 of 6The Lakers climbed out of the darkness and back into the light by winning 17 of their next 23 games after hitting their low point.
That stretch was capped off by a four-game win streak in which they recorded two sensational come-from-behind victories over the New Orleans Hornets and Toronto Raptors. In addition, they vanquished the Magic in Dwight Howard's return to Orlando thanks to a masterful performance from Howard himself.
All of a sudden the Lakers were in the thick of the playoff race and had aspirations to climb as high as sixth in the West.
D'Antoni wasn't looked at as a savior, but he began to gain more credit as the Lakers had success in his solitary big system when Pau Gasol missed significant time due to injury.
Black Mamba Down
4 of 6Unfortunately, the injury bug never let the Lakers be.
The biggest blow fell when Kobe Bryant's season was tragically terminated after he suffered a torn Achilles' tendon just a week before the playoffs, with L.A. still fighting for the eighth and final postseason berth.
D'Antoni came under heavy scrutiny for Bryant's injury. Kobe had played an inhumane 319 out of a possible 336 minutes during a seven-game stretch from March 30 to April 12.
Now, I don't buy that the burdensome workload caused Bryant's Achilles to give out. As Zach Lowe explained to Bill Simmons on this podcast, that's not how Achilles tears come about.
But still, D'Antoni allowing Bryant to play those kinds of minutes was unconscionable—even in the midst of a heated playoff race, even if Bryant demanded to stay in the game.
It's the coach's responsibility to look after the well-being of his charges. If D'Antoni didn't feel like he had the authority to take Bryant out of the game, there's a major problem brewing for the future.
Postseason Bound
5 of 6The Lakers finished off the season by winning 28 of their last 40 games, including their final five contests, the last two coming without their captain Kobe Bryant.
Not only did the Lakers qualify for the postseason, but they even leapfrogged the Houston Rockets to capture the seventh seed in the West and draw the San Antonio Spurs in Round 1.
That matchup against the Spurs gave Lakers fans some hope because L.A. defeated San Antonio in the final week of the season sans Bryant, and because the Lakers had so much familiarity with the Spurs in the playoffs.
Swept Aside
6 of 6All that rhetoric was useless when the actual series against the San Antonio Spurs got underway.
Without Kobe Bryant, the Lakers' offense was perpetually stalled and other injuries cropped up to the point that the L.A. was forced to start the immortal backcourt pairing of Darius Morris and Andrew Goudelock in an elimination game.
Nothing went right for the Lakers in their first-round series, as they were unceremoniously swept by the Spurs in four games that weren't even closely contested.
It was a fitting end to a disastrous season for Mike D'Antoni's squad.
