Los Angeles Lakers: 5 reasons they will make the playoffs this year

If the Los Angeles Lakers are going to make the playoffs, these five reasons will be why it happens.

What a difference two months has made for the Los Angeles Lakers.

At this time in December, the Lakers were playing well and had placed themselves firmly in the middle of the Western Conference playoff race. They weren’t a great team, but they were absolutely a good team, maybe even a really good team. They were building chemistry, making progress and learning how to win together.

Then LeBron James, the self-proclaimed Greatest of All-Time, Mr. Indestructible, suffered a strained groin in the middle of his team running the world champion Golden State Warriors out of their own gym.

He missed 17 games, during which the Lakers lost 11 times. They also lost the game against the Warriors he sat out for load management. Suddenly, bad vibes and negative energy was emanating from all over Laker Nation, as his teammates were starting to drop like flies.

Rajon Rondo sprained the ring finger on his shooting hand and missed about a month of action. Kyle Kuzma missed short stretches of action, while Lonzo Ball suffered a Grade 3 left ankle sprain in mid-January and was expected to miss four to six weeks.

As of the All-Star break, the purple and gold sit at 28-29 and are a full three games behind the eighth-place Los Angeles Clippers.

Making the playoffs seems like a bit of a tall order, but the Lakers have some things going in their favor as they prepare for what they hope will be a triumphant stretch run that would culminate in their return to the NBA playoffs after a long six-year absence.

If the Lakers are going to qualify for the postseason, these five reasons will be part of the reason why it happens.