1. The Los Angeles Lakers have far more starpower than the Los Angeles Clippers
Superstars matter in the NBA and while some fans will downplay the importance of adding stars in favor of team chemistry, every single title-winning team has a superstar. Sure, there are examples of teams upsetting more star-studded teams, such as the 2011 Dallas Mavericks, but they still had one of the 25-best players of all time.
There is a reason why the Milwaukee Bucks overcame a 2-0 deficit against the Phoenix Suns. That reason is Giannis Anteteokounmpo. While Devin Booker and Chris Paul are both great, I would not call either a superstar.
The Lakers have two bonafide superstars in LeBron James and Anthony Davis that were already more all-around talented than the duo that the Clippers have. The team then added a star (I will refrain from calling him a superstar) in Russell Westbrook, putting the icing on the cake.
Clipper fans may point to Westbrook’s style of play and predict it to blow up in the Lakers’ face. While that is the popular thing for pundits to predict about the Lakers, we have reason to believe that Westbrook will work out nicely on the Lakers.
Add in the fact that Kawhi Leonard had to have surgery for a partially torn ACL and the pendulum swings way in favor of the Lakers. Kawhi, who has never been shy in being as careful as possible with his health, is going to take his time coming back and he might not play a game until the playoffs.
Kawhi is great but is he really going to be the same Kawhi right away after missing a year? Probably not.