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.
2. The Lakers’ size is going to be a problem for the Warriors
There are not many teams that are built like the Lakers are. The two best players on the team both have size as LeBron James and Anthony Davis can dominate mismatches and can get to the cup against just about anyone.
In round one, the Lakers actually played one of the few teams that could handle their size because of Jaren Jackson. Even without Steven Adams, the presence of Jackson near the rim made a big difference in how the Lake Show had to operate.
As good of a defender as Draymond Green is (and don’t get us wrong, he is great), he does not have the same size as Jackson and naturally is not going to be able to do the same things that Jackson did near the cup.
LA’s tendency to use its size and get to the rim naturally sends the team to the free-throw line more often than other teams. This is going to play directly into what the Lakers want to do as the team ranked first in the entire league in free throws attempted per game. This is an area where the Warriors struggled, as they allowed the sixth-most free throws.
There are a few other teams in the league that have a big as their best player, such as the Denver Nuggets, Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks. Golden State was 2-5 against those three teams this season. If you add their head-to-head with the Lakers, the Warriors were 3-8 against said teams.
3. The Lakers are simply deeper than the Warriors
This would have sounded absolutely asinine a few months ago, especially before the NBA trade deadline. Before the deadline, the Lakers had one of the thinnest rosters in the entire league and that is why the team was struggling so much.
However, Rob Pelinka was able to completely rebuild the roster at the deadline. Combine that with certain players stepping up down the stretch and the Lakers have a legitimately deep playoff rotation that can compete with the best in the sport.
That includes the Warriors, who have not looked very deep thus far in the playoffs. Curry has been otherworldly, Klay Thompson has been consistent and Andrew Wiggins has been fine but outside of that, the rest of the supporting cast has left more to be desired.
If the Lakers can limit Curry (which is easier said than done) then the Warriors aren’t going to be as hard to beat in the playoffs. Heck, it took a 50-piece from Curry in Game 7 for the Warriors to get passed the Kings in the first place.
This is not to say that the Lakers can just stick Anthony Davis or Jarred Vanderbilt on Curry and call it a day. Curry is a generational player for a reason. But the Lakers also have generational players (something the Kings, as great as they were in the regular season, do not have).
Then it comes down to the role players and after the first round, Lakers fans should feel more comfortable with their role players. Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell can all take over a quarter or a half, win the Lakers the game and tilt the balance of the series entirely.
Do the Warriors have many options to do that? Unless Jordan Poole suddenly turns it around, no, they don’t.