The Los Angeles Lakers managed to pull off the win against the Utah Jazz on Monday night. The result may have saved Frank Vogel's job.
According to the latest report from The Athletic's Bill Oram and Sam Amick, the Lakers coach is sitting on the hottest of hot seats and may be coaching for his job with each passing game.
After the Lakers' embarrassing loss to the Denver Nuggets, wherein the team got outscored by 37 points and even prompted a call-out from Magic Johnson and a subsequent apology from LeBron James, Frank Vogel apparently just barely escaped the ax.
By the time the Lakers and Jazz tipped off on Monday night, sources said, Vogel was coaching for his job after he narrowly avoided being fired in the wake of the 37-point loss in Denver 48 hours earlier. Had a scene like that repeated itself against the Jazz, many believed it would have been Vogel’s last game.
The Lakers did manage to stave off defeat against the Jazz and end their three-game slide. But any further turbulence could result in a coaching change in Los Angeles sooner rather than later. According to the report, Vogel is basically on a “game-to-game basis” going forward.
With the Lakers (22-22) now seventh in the West and the midway point of the season behind them, sources say the organization’s decision-makers are closely monitoring the key question of whether Vogel still has command of the locker room.
Frank Vogel helped lead the Lakers to their first championship in over a decade during the 2019-20 season. But after a tumultuous season last year followed by an equally shaky 2021-22 campaign, the writing may be on the wall for the veteran head coach.
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