The Lakeshow Review

Following an emotional and crucial win at Dallas last night, the LA Lakers find themselves in the midst of a heated playoff chase. With two games left to go in the season, the only thing that is for certain is that nothing is for certain. Outside of Houston (2 seed) and Oklahoma City (1 seed), every other teams’ playoff futures rely on their ability to take care of their own business, and perhaps even some scoreboard watching. In the case of the Lakers, who currently sit at 3rd in the Western Conference (with a record of 49-31), they would need to secure at least one win between Friday’s contest versus Houston, or Sunday’s matchup against Portland. 

If the Lakers manage to lock up the 3 seed, the next logical question would be: who gets to the 6 seed and plays them in the first round? As it stands, seeds 4-8, Denver (48-32), LA Clippers (48-32), Golden State (47-33), Memphis (47-33)  and Minnesota (47-33) are all within two games of each other. I don’t think the Lakers should waste any time worrying about who their opponent will be. The team’s primary focus in these next two games (Houston and Portland) should be a simple one: WIN. Take care of the business at hand and worry about playoffs seeding and opponents later. As it stands, Golden State, Memphis and Minnesota sit at 33 losses, meanwhile Denver and LAC each have 32. It’s still too early to call, and even the Lakers themselves have at best a 1-game cushion over all five of these teams. It’s been yet another season of parity and razor-thin margins in the Western Conference. But the only remedy for uncertainty is simply to win.

For now, we know that the Lakers will finally avoid the vaunted play-in. However, a worst case scenario could see them drop as low as the 5 seed. Every single team below them, that’s still in the playoff chase, will be aiming to avoid the play-in as well, so there will be stiff competition for how the West’s playoff picture will shake out. The Lakers next game will be against Houston, who are above them at the 2 seed, and locked in to that spot. The Lakers have already beat Houston, doing so only a few days ago during their last homestand. It would benefit them to come out again with that same intensity, and put their best foot forward in order to secure a well-earned playoff seed. After that, they will have some clarity as to where they stand on the playoff bracket and will head into the playoffs with some measure of momentum, something ALL championship-aspiring teams should always look to do. Short of that, they will likely find themselves in a pressure-filled game against Portland (in Portland) where they have always been persona non-grata and where the home fans will be hungry for their team to play the role of spoiler, and drop the Lakers out of home court advantage in the first round. Not to mention, they run the risk of getting leapfrogged by the teams that are currently below them. 

It’s important for the team to buckle down and play focused basketball in these last two games, in order to enter the playoffs with some swagger and pizzaz, as opposed to merely limping into them. These Lakers have quite simply played great basketball during the seasons’ second half, particularly after the Luka Dončić trade. So it would be a shame to see the team dip in the standings because they took their foot off the accelerator during these last two games. So in my opinion, the teams’ objective should be a rather simple one: WIN and hopefully have the playoffs be an extension of a strong regular season finish. Go Lakers.