The stage is set. LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers will take on Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors in the second round of the NBA Playoffs. There have been a lot of great second-round series in NBA history but this might actually be the most star-studded we have ever seen.
This matchup represents the two best players of this generation on two of the last three champions who have faced off four times in total in the NBA Finals. It is as high-profile as it gets.
Lakers fans might be worried about this matchup and probably would have preferred to play the much-less-experienced Sacramento Kings. That might not be the matchup the Lake Show got, but it might not really matter at the end of the day.
3 reasons why the Lakers will conquer the Warriors in the NBA Playoffs:
1. The Warriors’ struggles on the road will play a huge factor
For whatever reason, the Warriors simply could not win on the road much in the regular season. They were able to win two games on the road against Sacramento to win that series but is it really that much of a road game going from San Francisco to Sacramento? Sure, the crowd was raucous, but that is as short as a road trip can get.
Golden State was 11-30 on the road in the regular season. That is not a typo. There is being bad on the road and then there is being abysmal. As far as playoff teams go, that is close to as bad as it can get.
Los Angeles might not be much of a road trip, either, but it is still going to be an incredibly tough environment to play in. This Lakers fanbase has been starved of in-person playoff basketball and we all saw firsthand just how much this team fed on the home crowd in the first round against Memphis.
Los Angeles went 3-0 in round one at home with a total point differential of +56. That is not what you want to run up against if you are a team that is bad when traveling.