Why the Los Angeles Lakers are completely safe from play-in tournament
By Jason Reed
1. LeBron James and Anthony Davis are soon returning to the Los Angeles Lakers
As LeBron warned on his Instagram, a storm is coming and everyone better brace for its arrival. That storm, of course, is the return of he and Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers starting lineup.
Davis was cleared to practice last Friday and could make his return in the coming days. LeBron’s timetable, per a report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, puts his return date at early May. If so, the Lakers should get LeBron for 9-10 games to close out the season.
Even if the Lakers only get 5-6 games of LeBron James they are still going to get Anthony Davis for what seems like a dozen. Just having one of the stars back is going to change the fortune of the team and when they are both back the Lakers are going to be very tough to beat.
The final six games of the season are against the Blazers, Suns, Knicks, Rockets, Pacers and Pelicans. A full-strength Lakers team can absolutely go 5-1 in those games and will go 3-3 at the very worst.
They also have three winnable games against the Orlando Magic, Washington Wizards and Sacramento Kings. If they win those three and split against Dallas that is already at least seven wins in the final 15.
That feels like a realistic floor for the Lakers with the stars returning and that just is not low enough to fall to the seventh seed.