The Los Angeles Lakers certainly have a preference in who they face in the NBA Playoffs.
Each passing day marks one day closer that the Los Angeles Lakers will be back in action looking to finish what they started and take home championship number 17. The Lakers, along with the other 21 teams invited to Orlando, will play eight seeding games before jumping into the playoffs.
The first seed is essentially a lock for the Lakers. The team owns a 5.5-game lead over the second-seeded Los Angeles Clippers and would have to go 1-7 or worse, with the Clippers going 7-1, to give up the first seed. It is not happening.
There is a myriad of teams that the Lakers can face in the first round of the playoffs and the league seems to be orchestrating things for the Pelicans to be that team. Regardless, if the ninth seed finishes within four games of the eighth seed then they will go to a two-game playoff to become the proper eighth seed.
With this rule, it opens the door for all the bottom teams to become the eighth seed, so the first-round matchup could be the Memphis Grizzlies, Pelicans, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings or San Antonio Spurs.
We have already broken down the potential first-round matchups in detail, but what about the second round? It is very rare for a first seed to lose in the first round and I think it is safe to say that the Lakers will be moving onto the second round of the playoffs.
LA would then take on the winner of the four and five seed. Right now, there are three teams, the Utah Jazz, Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets who are all tied in the standings and make up the fourth through sixth seed.
The Dallas Mavericks could move up if two teams play terribly and the Denver Nuggets could move down if they play terribly, but both are probably unlikely.
Thus, we decided to rank these three potential second-round matchups based on the challenge that they would be for the Los Angeles Lakers. Number one is the easiest potential matchup.