As positive as we would love to be about the Los Angeles Lakers we cannot deny what we are seeing on the court and what we are seeing on the court is rather straightforward: the Lakers are not a great basketball team.
To be fair, LeBron James has been banged up but should we expect him to have long healthy stretches at this point in his career? Plus, Russell Westbrook was brought in to make it easier when LeBron is hurt. He has done the opposite.
Things can change and there is still a lot of basketball left to play but it is hard to be confident in this Lakers team, especially when right now, there are at least four teams in the Western Conference who would easily beat this Lakers team in a playoff series.
The 4 Western Conference teams who would smoke the Los Angeles Lakers in the playoffs:
4. Denver Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets have one of the best players in the league in reigning MVP, Nikola Jokic. Shoving match aside, Jokic is having another incredible year for the Nuggets and is picking up right where he left off.
Jamal Murray still has not played this season and in his absence, Michael Porter Jr. has been playing really well. It will be interesting to see how that dynamic unfolds when Murray returns but either way, the Nuggets are three deep with scorers who can hurt you.
That is not counting Aaron Gordon, who is a great option as the fourth-best player on a title-contending team. The Nuggets are the best defensive team in the league thus far (ranking first in points allowed per game) and have scorers that can hurt a team like the Lakers, who have one of the worst defenses in the league.