After landing one of the greatest talents of his generation, the Los Angeles Lakers were instantly expected to become championship contenders again after being in purgatory for quite a while. It had been five years since they last reached the NBA Finals, but his arrival gave fans a sense of hope and excitement that they hadn't possessed in a while.
Their new superstar had recently reached the finals with his previous team, and expectations were high right away. But the Lakers fell well short of expectations and lost early in the playoffs, four games to one, to a veteran team that manhandled them in the physicality department and greatly outplayed them in crunch time.