Letters: Are these the Lakers or the losing 49ers?

After Sunday’s defeat by 49 points, the Lakers stood tall together and proclaimed, “Nobody beats the Lakers by 50 points.” 　

Paul Kessler

Century City

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In a Jan. 24 story about the Lakers, Luke Walton said his team was better than it showed, knew the amount of work his team was putting in and “deserve better results” than what they’ve had.

After every Lakers loss there is a litany of reasons for the loss; youth and inexperience, lack of effort and not competing hard enough, inconsistency, lack of focus, etc.

The main reason for a loss never mentioned is that maybe the level of talent on the Lakers does not equal the level of talent on the majority of other NBA teams.

At this time, the Lakers have the second-lowest winning percentage in the NBA. Perhaps they are getting the results they deserve.

Peter R. Pancione

Thousand Oaks

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When I visited my 95-year-old father, Stan, in the dementia ward of his assisted-care facility, I told him that he was lucky he wasn’t watching the Lakers anymore because they lost by 49 points. He replied “The problem is that they already have the money in their pocket. If you paid them based on winning, they’d get better real quick.” What an amazing moment of clarity !

Alan Sworski

Thousand Oaks

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This past weekend saw the worst loss in L.A. Lakers history. What do fans have to look forward to?

We keep hearing the excuse that the guys are young. What about the two highest-salaried players on the roster, the newly acquired veterans, Deng and Mosgov. Deng scores eight points per game and Mosgov scores seven. That is 15 points a game for almost $35 million a year in salaries and total contracts of close to $140 million. These two veteran starters have certainly not improved the team. That is on management.

Management keeps making one bad decision after another and has lost the respect of superstars around the league. That will not change with a last-place finish in the Western Conference in 2017. Thank goodness the season is more than half over as the Lakers of 2017 are like the Lakers of 2016 and 2015 and 2014. That story is getting old.

Bring back Kobe!

Richard Leeds

Irvine

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Bruins staggered

Always looking at the sunny side of life, UCLA style:

After an undefeated non-conference season: We are the best team in the country!

After losing to Oregon: It’s only one loss, we can still win the Pac-12!

After losing to Arizona: We are still the best team in L.A.!

After losing to USC: We are still the best team in Westwood!

Paul Jeong

South Korea

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After watching UCLA’s last two games , its apparent that their offense is one of the nation’s best and their defense is nonexistent . So, therefore until the Bruins’ defense reappears, we will keep the O in the coach’s last name but remove the D. Good luck, Coach AlfOr, but you won’t be cutting down the nets in April unless your D reappears .

Richard Katz

Los Angeles

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How many important games does UCLA have to lose because of an inept defense before Steve Alford hires an assistant coach who knows and can teach good defense? Clearly, Alford and his current assistants are clueless about defense.

Mark Mead

San Diego

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It was embarrassing in the final minutes to watch the exodus of Bruin fans and listen to the “U of A” and “Ari-zona” chants drown out the remaining Bruin supporters. I hope everyone who left early has already bought their tickets for the rematch in Tucson on Feb. 25. I’ll be there! Let’s support our team until the end of the game, win or lose.

We own Pauley; let’s show it.

Dan Hurley

Pasadena

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What does it say about coaching when freshmen are no better than at beginning of year, and the team as a whole surely has not improved over the year. Surprising? Consider: 63 coaches had reached the Elite Eight (several many times) from the year Steve Alford first was a head coach until Dan Guerrero chose him. Alford was not one of them.

Richard Agay

Los Angeles

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Oh sure, Dan Guerrero can pick a women’s lacrosse coach, but when it comes to the the only two revenue-producing sports (men’s football and basketball), he has two guys who have a lock on third and fourth place in the Pac-12 every single year. Forget about the cliche’ “can’t win the big one,” these guys can’t even get to the big one.

William David Stone

Beverly Hills

Patriotic times

So Bill Plaschke’s nose is all out of joint because Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft are Trump supporters, but won’t answer questions posed by the almighty sports writers about their politics? The sports page was the one bastion where we could get away from the seemingly endless stream of anti-Trump articles in the front section, but alas, no more. And, exactly why are they required to answer questions about their political views from some hack sportswriters?

Bill, quit acting like a spoiled brat and get back to real sportswriting. I wonder what he would have written, if it were Obama?

Ed Freeman

Moorpark

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If the Patriots go on to win the Super Bowl, will the Falcons be the alternative winners?

George Pisano

Rancho Palos Verdes

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Could the NFL possibly persuade Bill Belacheat to put his hand over his heart during the national anthem, assuming he has one?

Jack Wishard

Los Angeles

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The biggest issue with having two NFL franchises in the same city is, which L.A. team would Southern Californians root for in the Super Bowl? Fortunately we won’t be faced with this issue any time soon.

Ryan Madden

Huntington Beach

Rough diamonds

It’s challenging to read The Times’ congratulatory descriptions of recent Dodgers lineup moves. Trading upper, but not top-level prospects, for productive, but not great, veterans is hardly the stuff of glowing prose and/ or the making of champions. Further, referencing Guggenheim wealth only serves to amplify the disconnect. If we’re dealing — as it appears — with Rockefeller of the West-type riches, including a projected multi-billion revenue stream, aren’t L.A. fans reasonably entitled to expect ownership to lay out some substantial coin to secure correspondingly absolute top level talent?

Konrad Moore

Bakersfield

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Angels General Manager Billy Eppler suggests that Luis Valbuena may be the team’s starting first baseman this year, over C.J. Cron. This shows the Angels have their own version of alternative facts.

Cron had more hits (113 to 76), doubles (25 to 17) , home runs (16 to 13) and runs batted in (69 to 40) than Valbuena last year, and outhit him by 18 points, (.278 to .260). Maybe they just like finishing under .500.

Jay Berman

Manhattan Beach

Major burn

Brent Musburger should have retired long ago when he was at the top of his career calling Little League games.

Barry P. Resnick

Orange

Howe about that?

Yep, Gretzky was the greatest player ever to lace on skates. Orr was he?

Mike Davison

Toluca Lake

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