The Los Angeles Lakers have failed to do much of anything since winning the NBA Championship in 2020. Los Angeles was booted out of the first round of the NBA Playoffs the following season by the Phoenix Suns and missed the playoffs (and play-in) altogether this past season in disaster fashion.
It is widely believed (at least by Laker fans) that the team was stopped short in 2021 because of Anthony Davis’s injury. Los Angeles was up 2-1 against the Suns, who went on to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals, and lost the next three games with AD missing the next two and trying to come back (and failing) in Game 6.
That win seemed to mean more to the Suns than making it to the NBA Finals, which made it redeeming for Laker fans when the Suns were eliminated in seven games by the Dallas Mavericks in the second round of these playoffs.
However, it was also bitter-sweet as this proved that last year’s run for the Suns was mostly dependent on other teams suffering injuries. When you put it into perspective, if AD wouldn’t have gotten hurt, the Lakers would have not only potentially won last year’s NBA Championship, but this year’s as well.
The Lakers ripple effect of Anthony Davis’s injury.
First of all, it goes without saying that if the Lakers got a fully healthy Davis in that Suns series that they would have advanced. Games 2 and 3 were an absolute breeze for the Lakers with AD as the Suns could not handle the size of LA with the lack of depth on the team.
Then the Lakers would have run through the rest of the Western Conference and squared off with the Bucks in the NBA Finals. Is it fair to sit here today and say that the Lakers would have unquestionably beaten the Bucks? Not at all. However, if the Suns took them to six games, the Lakers probably would have had a fair chance.
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So how does that impact this season? Well, if the Lakers make a run to the NBA Finals then they probably will not have the same desperation that they had after losing in the first round. No desperation means the team doesn’t make the absurd Russell Westbrook trade.
Without the Russell Westbrook trade, the Lakers have depth this season, add the right pieces and make another march towards the NBA Championship.
And when it comes to the Western Conference this year, a healthy Lakers team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis would have absolutely been favored over both Golden State and Dallas. As good as those teams are, neither is as talented as the 2020 Lakers.
Awaiting LA in the NBA Finals would be the Miami Heat or Boston Celtics. Personally, I think the Celtics are the best team in the league and I am not sure if LA would have beaten this Boston team, but is certainly would have been close. If Miami upsets Boston then it is essentially the same team that the Lakers already beat in the NBA Finals two years ago.
There is an alternate universe very close to ours where Anthony Davis does not get hurt and the Lakers win the championship in both 2021 and 2022.