Once the 2011 NBA lockout ended in late November, the Los Angeles Lakers looked to reload, but it turned into a disaster.
They were on the verge of landing Chris Paul, but then-commissioner David Stern, in the capacity as acting owner of Paul’s team, the New Orleans Hornets, vetoed the trade.
Lamar Odom would’ve been sent to the Big Easy in that deal, and once he found out, he was inconsolable, and thus the Lakers sent him to the Dallas Mavericks for the NBA equivalent of 20 cents to the dollar.
L.A. also had a new head coach, Mike Brown, who was known as a defensive guru but was inept when it came to coaching offense.
As a result, the Lakers were a good team in 2012, but they were no longer the juggernaut they had been in the previous four seasons.
But heading into the playoffs, they still felt they had a puncher’s chance at yet another championship, and Andrew Bynum would make a statement in their postseason opener versus the Denver Nuggets.
He tallied 10 points, 13 rebounds and 10 blocked shots in L.A.’s 103-88 win.
Those 10 blocks tied an NBA playoff record and seemed to be the cherry on top of his best season, which saw him get selected to the NBA All-Star game.
The Lakers took a 3-1 series lead over Denver, but they would need the full seven games to eliminate them. They then got waxed by the young and dangerous Oklahoma City Thunder in five games in the next round.
