Los Angeles Lakers: 3 reasons why LA could sweep the Trail Blazers

3. The Los Angeles Lakers are fresh (and haven’t shown their hand yet)

The Los Angeles Lakers looked sluggish in a lot of the seeding games but there was an important reason why: the team’s number one priority was ensuring that they were healthy entering the NBA Playoffs.

With many players resting the last game and LeBron playing minimal minutes, it is safe to say that the Lakers are pretty fresh. The Blazers are not going to be worn down after the seeding games after such a long lay-off, but they have had to fight tooth and nail night in and night out to get this playoff spot.

The Lakers, meanwhile, have been on cruise control. Now, a Blazers fan could argue that this benefits Portland, as they are already in that competitive mode and have been for two weeks. That would be applicable in any other situation — not with LeBron on the roster, who has proven that he can turn it on instantly when needed.

Not only are the Lakers fresh, but they have not really shown their hand. While the Blazers could easily watch film and attack the Lakers that way, the Lakers have not shown exactly what the playoff rotation looks like, the offensive gameplan and was even so low-energy on defense that they did not show their hand there.

The Blazers have been playing with their season on the line. The Los Angeles Lakers know exactly what the team wants to do (get the ball to Damian Lillard, mostly) and have had all this time to scout and prepare for potential opponents while the Blazers were not even sure if they would be in the NBA Playoffs.

With a veteran team as experienced as the Lakers, that matters. I still think that Portland could easily steal a game (or maybe two) with one hot night from Damian Lillard, but for these reasons, a sweep is also possible.