Los Angeles Lakers: 3 Ways the suspension hurts the franchise
By Nick Ziegler
– Uncertainty about resuming
While the hope from everyone is that the season will resume, we don’t exactly know when that will happen. Depending on the delay, there is the possibility that the league will just take what happened in the regular season and start the playoffs.
Even though the Lakers have the best record in the Western Conference and would be the No.1 seed in the West, starting the playoffs right away after a long layoff could be a disaster. In the NBA, upsets very rarely happen in the playoffs. Generally, throughout a 7-game series, the better team will come out on top more often than not. While injuries can affect a series, the better team will usually win, and very rarely do we see a 7 seed beat a 2 seed or an 8 seed beat a 1 seed.
If the playoffs did start right away, it would be the Lakers facing the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies have been a surprise team this season, and they would be sneaking into the playoffs if the season did end.
Even though the Lakers are a better team than the Grizzlies, it is impossible to know how these players and teams would respond to something we have never seen before.