3 teams Lakers fans should be rooting strongly against as playoffs near

Lakers fans should root strongly against the Sacramento Kings

Lakers fans already have disdain for the Sacramento Kings as they were the team's biggest rivals in the early 2000s. However, ever since then, the Kings have not been a threat to anyone in the league so there has been no real reason to root against them.

The Kings made the playoffs last year but their path did not intersect at all with the Lakers. In fact, Sacramento fell to the Golden State Warriors in round one, setting up a great matchup in round two for the Lakers to win in five games.

This season is different as the two teams are intertwined in the same hunt for the sixth seed in the Western Conference. Sacramento is currently the seventh seed in the West and has the same record as the Mavericks — 1.5 games better than the Lakers.

Los Angeles does play the Kings again and will square off against them on Wednesday night. The tiebreaker is already out of the picture for the Lakers as the Kings have won all three games against the purple and gold this season.

However, beating the Kings on Wednesday night can still provide a huge boost as it would give the Lakers an entire game in the standings. In a Western Conference playoff picture that is so convoluted, this one game in March could be the difference.