It is already clear that the Los Angeles Lakers are likely to end up in the Play-In Tournament at the end of the regular season. Standing three games clear of the sixth spot in the Western Conference, it will be a tall task for them to climb back out of the Play-In range and remain there by the time the playoffs begin.
Not to mention the unfavorable tiebreak scenarios the Lakers are already faced with. Ending up as a top six seed is basically out of the question at this point, and LA must begin to prepare for the teams they will likely have to face in a winner-take-all, single-game elimination Play-In game.
The four teams the Lake Show is most likely to face in the Play-In are (in order of current standings) the Sacramento Kings, the Dallas Mavericks, the Phoenix Suns, and the Golden State Warriors. We will rank these four teams by the level of threat they pose to the Lakers in this scenario.
Least threatening: Phoenix Suns
The big three of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal was looked at as a potentially league-breaking one when it first formed last year. But as we have seen, injuries and other circumstances have led to more of a rocky campaign this season than many would have guessed.
As far as how Phoenix has matched up with LA this year, the Lakers won three of the teams' five meetings, including two of the three in Los Angeles. The Suns are one of the few teams the Lake Show will actually own a tiebreaker over should it come down to that.
Phoenix's rotation is small enough that the Lakers will have the ability to push them around and impose their physicality on them. If LA found themselves in a Play-In game with the Suns, they would have to feel pretty good about their chances.
Less threatening: Dallas Mavericks
The star power of Luka Doncic continues to dominate the NBA. After locking up a Hall-of-Fame level resume before ever even moving to the United States, Luka Magic is continuing his historic run in the top basketball league in the world. Averaging a career-high 34.4 points and 9.7 assists, he is well on his way to his fifth straight All-NBA First Team selection.
Doncic got some top-notch help at the trade deadline last season when the Mavericks were able to pull off a deal for Kyrie Irving. The aging but still crafty as ever guard has been helping Dallas in a big way this season, most recently with his unbelievable left-handed hook shot to win the game over the defending champion Denver Nuggets on Sunday.
Perhaps the most underrated piece to this Mavericks team is the rookie Dereck Lively, who has helped Luka unlock his pick-and-roll game to an even greater degree. That said, this Dallas squad is still teetering on the edge of the playoffs.
They would likely be a more difficult matchup for the Lakers than the Suns simply given that Luka Doncic will unquestionably be the best player on the floor in a potential Lakers-Mavs series. But they still lack overall roster consistency from last season as well as playoff experience, and that is where LA would gain the upper hand.
More threatening: Golden State Warriors
Here is where things get interesting. The Lakers and Warriors have been neck-and-neck in the standings for weeks upon weeks, with no sign of either gaining distance from the other in sight. It is as if the two are determined to setup a rematch of last year's Western Conference Semifinals.
Last year, the Lakers earned the matchup with four-time champion Stephen Curry and his Warriors after upsetting the shorthanded Grizzlies in the first round. The result was a series that was not as close as it appeared, with LA taking big time advantage of Golden State's lack of size to win the series in six.
It was the latest iteration of a rivalry that has existed since LeBron James first arrived in Los Angeles. Of course, Steph and LeBron have been battling it out in the playoffs ever since the Warriors and Cavaliers made it an annual tradition to play each other in the Finals from 2015 to 2018.
If these two teams met again, the Lakers could take a bit of comfort in their still-present size advantage over what was at one point this season the smallest average roster height-wise in the NBA. But it is the history between James and Curry that makes this matchup scary for LA.
Steph will no doubt be out for revenge after last year's playoff loss. Anything can happen in a single-game elimination tournament, and the reality where Curry torches the Lakers to eliminate their playoff hopes would sting for a long time.
Most threatening: Sacramento Kings
Unquestionably the worst matchup for the Lakers out of the four teams closest to them in the standings is the Kings. Sacramento has won all four of their meetings with LA this season, once again proving that they simply have the Lakers' number right now.
The crux of the Kings' domination over the the Lake Show? Domantas Sabonis. He has been incredibly productive this season, putting up 20.1 points and a league-leading 13.7 rebounds per game. More importantly, he has dominated his head-to-head matchup with Anthony Davis each time Sacramento has taken on Los Angeles.
As many are aware by now, Sabonis holds an incredible 10-0 career record against AD. With his physical style of play and incredible consistency as of late, he has simply done whatever he wants against arguably the best defensive frontcourt player in the NBA.
Going up against Sacramento would already be difficult simply from an X's and O's standpoint. They finished third in the Western Conference standings last season and came one Stephen Curry 50-point game away from being in the semifinals.
But the 10-0 mark Sabonis holds over Anthony Davis gives the Kings a significant mental edge as well. The Lakers should do everything they can to avoid Sacramento in a Play-In game.