Column: Shame on Lakers for getting what they deserve: Mediocre team, major problems

Shame on the Lakers.

Shame on them for turning a magical championship season into an unabated clown show.

Shame on them for spending the last 15 months deconstructing their rebuilt credibility and allowing themselves to crumble back into the same old mess.

Magic Johnson ripping from the cheap seats. Kurt Rambis sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. A coach getting publicly skewered and probably fired. Lofty banners obscured by dirty laundry.

Remember in April 2019 when Johnson abruptly quit as the Lakers president, sending the organization spinning into weeks of confusion and embarrassment? Rob Pelinka was ridiculed, Kurt and Linda Rambis were ripped, and the coaching seat was soon swept clean.

It’s all happening again.

After a humiliating 111-104 loss to the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena, the Lakers confirmed their identity as a mediocre team with major problems caused by serious mismanagement, and there is no easy solution in sight.

“I don’t feel like I’m under siege,” said coach Frank Vogel before the game.

He’s under siege. The ugliness starts with his situation. The Lakers are preparing to make him the scapegoat for their personnel mistakes. It’s just a matter of time. He could be fired this week, ornext week, or sometime next month, or this spring, but he will almost surely be fired for being unable to connect a passel of mismatched dots that can turn them into a championship contender.

It’s not even remotely his fault, but what are Pelinka and Rambis going to do, fire themselves? To save their jobs, they will willingly sacrifice the 2020 championship coach as if he has suddenly forgotten how to coach. They will betray one of the league’s defensive geniuses even though this team desperately needs to improve on defense. They will release a good guy to protect their bad ideas.

Those…