The Los Angeles Lakers are playing some of the best basketball of their entire season right now. After Wednesday night's win in Washington, LA has taken home eight victories in their last nine games. This team is peaking at just the right time, and that should be a scary sight for the rest of the Western Conference.
Of course, the problem of getting into the eight-team playoff field still looms. Even with how they have been able to stack up wins as of late, the Lakers are still in ninth place in the West, one game behind the Sacramento Kings.
LA is a full five games ahead of the eleventh-place Houston Rockets, so they are basically guaranteed a place in the Play-In tournament. But once they are there, a few factors will determine their fate. One of the most important being which seed they finish with.
LeBron James revealed on Wednesday that he is not overly concerned with where the Lakers finish in the standings and what matchup they draw, and this should be highly concerning for fans.
LeBron James isn't spending much worrying about seeding, believing the Lakers need to keep focusing on the game ahead of them: "Wherever we fall is where we fall and wherever we got to go, if we have to go on the road, that’s fine. That’s fine. That’s just what it came down to"
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) April 4, 2024
LeBron's comments could be an omen for a disappointing finish
After the Lakers' win over the Wizards, LeBron emphasized his belief that LA needs to simply continue focusing on the games in front of them, and that "if we have to go on the road, that's fine." While the concept of not letting standings and seeding talk get in your head seems like a wise tactic in theory, it may not actually end up benefitting this team in the long run.
Here's the thing: it is significantly easier to secure a playoff spot playing as a seven or eight seed in the Play-In than it is as a nine or ten seed. With all the pressure of making it to the playoffs placed on them, this team would be in much better position having to win just one do-or-die game rather than two in a row.
The optics surrounding this team do not improve with comments like the ones LeBron made. The players have to show that they care about putting themselves in the best position to win possible, and saying that you don't care about seeding does the opposite of that.
At the end of the day, the Lakers are scraping and clawing to get to the playoffs after being viewed as a top West contender before the season started. Coming at the home stretch of this tumultuous season with a lackadaisical mindset will inevitably only lead to disappointment.