The Los Angeles Lakers are officially in the play-in tournament and will be squaring off against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors in one game to decide who the seventh seed in the Western Conference will be.
The loser of that game will play the winner of the Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs for the right to be the eighth seed. Laker fans do not have to worry about a second game, as the team should easily handle the Warriors.
The Lakers had a chance to be the sixth seed in the West and avoid the play-in altogether, and boy did they try. The Lakers ended the season with five consecutive victories but it was not enough. Portland ended the year winning eight of their last 10, including the season finale against the Denver Nuggets.
The Lakers would have played the Nuggets in the first round as the third seed, which was not expected. It seemed like the Los Angeles Clippers were all but penciled in to be the third seed in the West, until they saw how the Lakers were playing.
The Clippers pulled off a miraculous example of seeding manipulation as the team actively rested its starters and fielded mediocre teams to end the season with losses to both the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder.
Those are two teams that are TRYING to lose basketball games and are the two worst teams in the Western Conference. The Clippers lost both of those games. Why?
The Los Angeles Clippers were avoiding the Los Angeles Lakers.
While the Lakers ultimately ended up with the seventh seed, one more Portland loss would have slated the Lakers for a first-round matchup against the Clippers. The Clippers obviously did not want that and it should tell both Clipper and Laker fans what to expect in the NBA Playoffs this year.
To be completely transparent, I argued that this would be a bad thing for the Lakers as Phoenix is a better first-round matchup and it gives LeBron James more time to get to 100%. This is different, though.
That was my opinion but it obviously was not the Lakers’ opinion as LeBron came back looking to get the sixth seed and make a statement. They didn’t seem to care who they played in the first round of the playoffs. The Lakers understand that they probably have to get through the Clippers anyways.
So while it makes more sense on paper for both of these teams to avoid each other, I love the confidence of the Lakers simply not caring and going for it. Whereas the Clippers looked the Lakers right in the face and decided to turn the other way.
We have waited two years for a vaunted Lakers-Clippers playoff series and if it happens this year then it will happen in the Western Conference Finals. The Clippers would play the winners of the first/eighth seed matchup in the second round, while the Lakers would be tasked with the winners of the third and sixth seed.
Not only did the Clippers avoid the Lakers in the first round, but they avoided them in the first two rounds! That is even more telling! The Clippers could have beaten the OKC Thunder and not had to play the Lakers in the first round because the Nuggets lost to Portland.
But nope… they instead opted to miss the Lakers altogether.
Clipper fans can talk about the regular-season matchup all they want but that did not mean anything last year. Kawhi and co. could not even make it to the dance to square off against the Lakers last year.
And it has become quite obvious that they are hoping someone else takes the Lakers out before they have to face the music this year as well.
One team has confidence and does not care which team they have to go through and when while one team actively tanked their playoff spot to get an easier path and avoid the defending champs. Which team would you feel more confident in?