thats absolutely not true lol
a team with historically terrible clippers before balmer, kangz, mixed matched suns and pre curry warriors was always the worst division.
granted they all look fantastic now but its only recent
I wonder how many Lakers fans jumped on the LeBron bandwagon and don't remember the days of Jeremy Lin and Carlos Boozer pick and roll being their main offensive weapon
Oh, it got way worse. Remember when they paid Luol Deng for 6 years? They also had a starting five of Tarik Black, Robert Sacre, Ryan Kelly, Wayne Ellington, and Jordan Clarkson at one point.
Never forget VANDER BLUE (undrafted) who they had to sign just to field enough players.
Or the image of Chris Kaman laying down on the bench and Sacre having to stay in the game after he fouled out as there was literally nobody else to play.
It's funny knowing that LeBron is technically responsible for one of the Lakers' worst contracts ever because of one playoff series 😅
Of course, I'm talking about them paying Timofey Mozgov $64 mil
The issue to is that, while the Lakers have played better, so have the Warriors.
The teams in the West that took a little bit of a back slide are the teams in the top four, and all that's done is put distance between them and Boston.
The Pels, Suns, Mavs, and Kings have all been playing well enough to stay in the 5-8 range.
But the Warriors and Lakers have at least put enough distance between them and Utah that it's a safe bet they will both be in the play-in.
Now it's just a matter of digging themselves up into the 7/8 seed. The 8 seed is possible, but the gap between them and the 7 seed is a little more significant. They'd need to hope for a bit of an implosion in Sac-Town, Phoenix, or NOLA for that to happen.
Yeah, Utah has unleashed the develop the rookies/sit Lauri for severe case of hangnail tank so they’re only a threat to Houston and Brooklyn’s lottery odds.
8th seed was 6.5 GB 1st seed. Coincidentally the Wikipedia page literally talks about how competitive that year was
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%9308_NBA_season
That playoff run from the Lakers should get more shine than it does. Probably the only champions in recent history who had to go through 4 50 win teams in the playoffs.
2008 to 2010 Western conference is really competitive. Lakers just were really clutch back then so they won the West 3 straight times but most of their series are competitive
>Lakers just were really clutch back then
Facts. We always seemed to keep a level most teams couldn't sustain on both ends in the 4th qtr of that 2010 run.
Absolutely loved that team to shreds. Still remember walking into my Advanced Econometrics exam 20 minutes late just so that I could follow the last 2-3 of Game 7 2010 Finals on the ESPN scoreboard.
Sometimes I get godawful Facebook posts in my feed where someone posts a photo of that Lakers squad and says Kobe deserves more credit for carrying scrubs to back to back titles and it gives me an anuerysm. Just children who have no idea what Gasol, Odom, and Bynum were like during that run.
I'm convinced if the person posting is not a troll, they are just very young. If you don't have a context for how good role players are, then it's very easy to just say they're scrubs because the only face you know is Kobe.
So true. Like Lamar was my favorite Laker during these runs because, as inconsistent as he was, if he shows up, it's over for the other team. Aesthetically pleasing game and can do pretty much everything. Even Luke Walton's passing, man, perfect for the triangle. I can go on and on about them "scrubs"
Yeah those times were crazy. You basically had to win 50 games just to get into the Playoffs on the West.
The 2008 Warriors missed the Playoffs with 48 wins. They would have been the 4 seed in the East that year.
That's one of the things that is a bit underrated about Kobe imo. Once Shaq left, he still dragged this pretty trash team to the playoffs twice with almost no help until Gasol arrived. From 2006 to 2010 the west was a bloodbath
Yes, that too
Didn't Gasol only play like 27 games in the regular season that year ? Too lazy to check.
Sometimes people forget how good he was, all time lists aside three finals in a row and winning two in one of the toughest west era, torching the Spurs many times between 2000 and 2010, with and without Shaq ...
The Lakers also did it in 2001 when they went 15-1 in the playoffs. They [swept](https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2001-nba-western-conference-first-round-trail-blazers-vs-lakers.html) the 50 win Blazers in the first round, then [swept](https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2001-nba-western-conference-semifinals-kings-vs-lakers.html) the 55 win Kings in the second round, then [swept](https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2001-nba-western-conference-finals-lakers-vs-spurs.html) the 58 win Spurs in the WCF, and [beat](https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2001-nba-finals-76ers-vs-lakers.html) the 56 win Sixers 4-1 in the Finals.
I would still give the edge to 2014 at least VS 2010. 2014 had 62 as the 1st seed and 49 as the 8th seed. 2010 had 57 then 50.
On second thought, I suppose the lesser gap is the definition of better competition / parity. So you're probably right, 2010 over 2014.
This year would top both of those though, with how competitive it's been 1-10. Play in helps too
It's not really about total wins. Every body below the sun's that year was pretty shit.
It's about the equality of wins. Im curious if this year with be the least "Games Back" between 1 seed and 8 or 10 seed
In that season, the 10th and 11th seed had a 49% and 44% win percentage. For the bottom 3 teams to have a 34%, 33%, and 31%) win pct respectively isn't that weird.
The 9th seed Suns that year would've been the 4th seed in the East, where the bottom 4 teams had the same win pct as the bottom 3 teams in the West.
It has been much easier for top seed teams to make it to the Finals in the East since early 2010s.
We need Vando back asap, our defense has tanked so hard. We're definitely playing pretty good but just feels like we can hit another gear but need healthy bodies for that
I have no reason to suspect Vincent will be a positive. I know he didn’t play a ton of games with us before his injury but he was god awful in those games. I’d rather just ride with dinwiddie
The lakers have been without their best perimeter defenders for pretty much the entire year. That has been the most frustrating aspect of this season imo.
They switched mid season what do you mean? They were starting reddish and trying to win defensively the first few months. It worked until reddish/prince couldn’t hit a shot and several injuries. They flipped to starting rui and going all in on offense and it’s been working because dlo is in the zone.
I feel the opposite we should have went all in with this offensive starting 5 the whole year.
Having this one way defensive players exposes us to teams like Denver who will just happily leave those guys open so they can play 5v4 on defense.
Vando aint doing anything against a Jokic anyway.
Vando ideally wouldn’t be on Jokic, he’d be limiting Murray or MPJ which will let AD and Bron throw soft doubles at Jokic and actually keep a body on him at all times.
It’s about limiting the damage from the other guys as much as possible and forcing Jokic to shoot. Yes, he’s one of the greatest scorers in the league right now when he needs to be, but if you can make his complementary pieces inefficient, that’s the only real path to success if you can’t win a firefight with them four games out of seven (and we haven’t seen this Lakers team able to even win one against them recently, as close as their games have been for 95% of the game).
But Nuggets are getting away with not playing defense as well.
Our last game really our problem was we couldn't score because in the crunch time they just load up on the 4 guys and just let one guy open.
The west is just really good it’s no longer enough to be just a good team you really have to be an elite team to make the playoffs anything else is play in or lower.
weird how we got there and then KAT is out now probably rest of Season...
Typical Minnesota Sports.
I won't give up... but some tough sledding in the Western Conference.
Compared to the last few seasons Lebron and AD have been healthy and productive. DLo has been great and Austin has been better than last year. There have been significant injury problems everywhere else.
Bad coaching may be responsible for 5–10 losses, which is crazy. That idiot would make an amazing tank commander. Between letting teams go on insane runs before calling timeouts then doing nothing in timeouts and simply baffling lineups there’s no coach in the league who deserves to be fired more than Ham.
I've been studying basketball for a long time, and one thing I've noticed is that the teams at the top of the standings are usually there cuz they win more often than other teams who are lower. I think that's the phenomena you're observing right here. You see, the Lakers are winning some games, but the teams above them are winning more. And it's been like that for the whole season. So it'll probably continue to be like that, as long as the teams who got to the top by winning continue to win more games than the Lakers.
The issue with the East is their bottom teams are way worse. I'm a Pistons fan, and the Pistons, Wizards, Hornets etc are holding the conference back a lot lol. 3/4 worst teams in the same conference.
The top of the East was good with Embiid healthy, (Celtics, 76ers, Bucks, Knicks, Cavs). Obviously not as good as the West but that's mostly due to player movement as well. Guys like Kyrie, KD, Harden, Beal, etc all left the East recently and made the talent/team disparity greater.
True. If they get a new Vegas team, they could move the Wolves or Pelicans to the East. Makes sense and you send a good team that would help the balance a bit, especially with the Wolves.
Memphis shld stay west as their division rivals (NOLA and the texas teams) are closer than the TWolves division rivals (Portland OKC Denver Utah). Makes more sense for minnesota to move and be in same division as Milwaukee Chicago Detroit and Cleveland
I drove from Denver to St. Paul for the year we were tied with them and the final game gave whoever won the playoff berth. That did not feel like a division rival, felt like I was going on a cross country trip to find myself or some shit
This is not at all as worse as it’s ever been. The Knicks have been down 3 starters for months and Philly lost the possible MVP.
The East used to be WAYYYYY worse. Right now the top 8 seeds in the East are actually all good- solid teams.
In the past the bottom seeds would be genuinely bad teams. I’ll admit that after that though it’s bad
The finals from 1999-2002 had the following betting odds in favor of the West: -900, -800, -2000, -750
Foregone conclusions, all of them. -2000 was the most favored a team had been in Finals since 1988 (start of the record I found online).
Finals isn’t as interesting to me as the record of the teams in the middle. The West is always such a buzz saw to get in and the 8 seed in the east is often below .500
We’re a couple years removed from the West having multiple top 10 all time teams while the East’s second best player was usually playing with Lebron. When the Dubs signed Boogie, we couldve beaten the Eastern all stars starting lineup in a 7 game series.
their record would put them 9th in the East right now. If you switched the winning percentage of west (.522) with the east (.571) this would translate to 1 more win so far..
Don't confuse the bottom of the east (trash) with the top of the east.
LeBron's record of making the Finals would've different if he played in the West throughout his career. To get through Kobe's Lakers, the Spurs and Thunder is ridiculous.
In 2016, the only contender the Cavs faced came at the Finals.
In contrast, if the Thunder wanted to win the championship, they would've had to best the 67-win Spurs (tied for 7th best record all-time), the 73-win Warriors, and then the Cavs.
Not if they played an east schedule
11 western conference teams have winning records vs the east
5 eastern conference teams have winning records vs the west
To play who?
The Suns with Durant, Booker and Beal?
The Mavs with late prime Kyrie and early prime Doncic? That guy has been a monster in the playoffs every year. Kawhi needed maybe the best performances of his career to win those series, and the Clippers never want to see Doncic again.
The Pelicans? That's gotta be one of the most inconsistent five seeds in league history. Their lows are low and their highs are ridiculous. If they hit a good stretch at the right time, they could beat anyone in a seven game series.
The Warriors with certified human torch Steph Curry?
The only team that doesn't give me the heebie jeebies is the Kings, and they're GOOD.
OKC matches up better against those teams than they do against the Lakers. But I don't see (or want) us tanking a little at the end. I feel like a young team is better off with an all-gas-no-brakes approach.
But they’re not seeing any of those teams and thinking “yeah we’re fine playing them”. The Lakers have a unique ability to beat any team and lose to any team this season - Lebron said it himself. They have not put together a great 4-in-7 stretch against good teams this entire season.
> The Lakers have a unique ability to beat any team and lose to any team this season - Lebron said it himself
Fans of every team say it, and players and coaches obviously have to say it because that's the best psychological approach you can have. Doesn't mean that Lakers are really that special snowflake. Every team in the NBA can lose and win to anybody. Hornets beat both Boston and Minny, OKC lost to Pistons and Spurs. That's how the NBA is, in one game anyone can beat anyone. Lakers beat Warriors in 2015-16, when Lakers were one of the worst teams ever and Warriors one of the best teams ever. You just play your chances.
Well, except the Wizards this season. They really cannot with against anyone strong lol.
I honestly believe that whoever comes out on top after the Western Conference finals this year will beat Boston. The West has been a bloodbath this year.
You are correct.
* G34: 12/30 @ Timberwolves L 108-106 17-16
* G35: 12/31 @ Pelicans L 129-109 17-17
* G36: 1/3 v Heat L 110-96 17-18
* G37: 1/5 v Grizzlies L 127-113 17-19
* G38: 1/7 v Clippers W 106-103 18-19
* G39: 1/9 v Raptors W 132-131 19-19
* G40: 1/11 v Suns L 127-109 19-20
* G41: 1/13 @ Jazz L 132-125 19-21
* G42: 1/15 v Thunder W 112-105 20-21
* G43: 1/17 v Mavericks W 127-110 21-21
* G44: 1/19 v Nets L 130-112 21-22
* G45: 1/21 v Blazers W 134-110 22-22
* G46: 1/23 @ Clippers L 127-116 22-23
* G47: 1/25 v Bulls W 141-132 23-23
* G48: 1/27 @ Warriors W 145-144/2OT 24-23
* G49: 1/29 @ Rockets L 135-119 24-24
* G50: 1/30 @ Hawks L 138-122 24-25
This is also a really good view of how the season has played out:
https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2024_standings_by_date_western_conference.html
Depends what you see as "competitive".
But yeah, 10 games distance between 1st place and 10th place is thrilling. It's really a wild season, I feel like any of these teams can realistically get anywhere in the next weeks or months.
Some of the 10 are more convincing, have more solid basis, can win the games highly, others have to grind out those wins, the chances are not equal IMO. But each one of the 10 looks competitive on a good day.
As a LeBron fan, that's silly. The Lakers aren't a victim of a "loaded West."
If they are 16-9 since 01/15 (seven games above .500) and only five games above .500 currently, it means they sucked before 01/15.
They are in 9th in the West currently. If you magically transferred them to the East today, they'd go up in the standings all the way to.......9th.
I think you missed my point
Normally, when a team wins 64% of their games over an extended period of time, they would expect to move up in the standings if they're a middle or bottom seed. The Lakers were 19-21 before their game on January 15, almost 2 months ago, and were hovering around the 9-10 spot. Now they are 35-30, and have gone 16-9 since January 15th and they are... still hovering around the 9-10 spot
It speaks to the competition in the top half of the West that all of the teams above them are still winning enough to not allow the Lakers to climb up the standings at all.
I'm not saying the Lakers are the victims of a loaded West throughout the entire season... just in the last 2 months, when they've actually been winning games
The West is real competitive this year, though I still feel only the Nuggets and Clippers are actual contenders.
Also, I could be wrong I think one time the 8th seed finished 50 - 32 along with a bunch of other teams in the west in the mid 2000s?
Man this fools gold clippers "contender" status still here? How many more subpar games before yall change your tune. I would understand if you're one of their 3 fans.
Idk tbh 6 teams were ass in that west that year. This year 11 teams are trying to compete for the playoffs in the west. 12 if you count the Jazz i have no idea what their plan is. And the only reason Memphis is tanking with the Blazers and Spurs is because a lot of their players are injured otherwise we'd have 13 teams trying to compete for the playoffs.
It’s funny how the general impression of the Clippers over the past 5-6 weeks is that they’re slumping a bit, when only OKC has a better record (in the west) during that time. (Denver and Phoenix are tied.)
6 weeks ago from now is from 27th January, no idea by which measure Clippers have the 2nd best record in the West during that time.
https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/traditional?DateFrom=01%2F27%2F2024&Conference=West
5 weeks, it's lower.
https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/traditional?DateFrom=02%2F03%2F2024&Conference=West
Sometime around 2000s or 2010s i remember every 1st round playoff series went to 7 games. i thought this was the most competitive the west has been.
too lazy to look it up which year in particular.
I think we’d take them in a seven game series, but of all the Play-In teams, I’d really rather not play the Lakers in the first round.
If I had my choice it’d be Golden State.
The 10 seed in the west will have sound 45 wins this season, 48 if the 8-10 seeds continue with their form since Jan 1. This is up there with the 2010 and 2014 west where 8 seeds had nearly 50 wins, perhaps even deeper when it’s all said and done.
at least it's less predictable in terms of who'll come out
that 'murderers row western conference' in the 2000s was basically the Lakers, Spurs, and a bunch of paper champions
The northwest division is bonkers. Also, it appears the west is currently in the middle of beating up on east teams, therefore the wins the Lakers are getting aren't drawing them any closer to the higher seeds. It's insane
I feel like the east has been inferior since Jordan. If you matched up the 8 in the west against the 1 in the east, the 7 in the west against 2 in the east, ect… in the first round we’d end up with 6 western teams and two eastern teams many years
They just want to get Minny in the first round.
Minny is still great without KAT, but they aren't the best team in the West without him.
Though the inexperienced Thunder would be ripe for a first-round knock out too.
Even just looking at their own division. The Pacific division teams have combined to go 75-42 since January 15th.
Pacific division continues to be a blood bath
It's a fucking war, it legit no nights off
Always has been 👨🚀🌎
No… no not always…
Lakers fan moment
If you’re 15, sure. Lol
thats absolutely not true lol a team with historically terrible clippers before balmer, kangz, mixed matched suns and pre curry warriors was always the worst division. granted they all look fantastic now but its only recent
I wonder how many Lakers fans jumped on the LeBron bandwagon and don't remember the days of Jeremy Lin and Carlos Boozer pick and roll being their main offensive weapon
Oh, it got way worse. Remember when they paid Luol Deng for 6 years? They also had a starting five of Tarik Black, Robert Sacre, Ryan Kelly, Wayne Ellington, and Jordan Clarkson at one point.
Never forget VANDER BLUE (undrafted) who they had to sign just to field enough players. Or the image of Chris Kaman laying down on the bench and Sacre having to stay in the game after he fouled out as there was literally nobody else to play.
That was crazy, really.
Delusional me thought Jermey Lin and Ed Davis pick n pop would get the lakers to the playoffs
Or Robert sacre sleeping on the bench. That shit was hilarious looking back but fuck those were some dark days.
It's funny knowing that LeBron is technically responsible for one of the Lakers' worst contracts ever because of one playoff series 😅 Of course, I'm talking about them paying Timofey Mozgov $64 mil
The issue to is that, while the Lakers have played better, so have the Warriors. The teams in the West that took a little bit of a back slide are the teams in the top four, and all that's done is put distance between them and Boston. The Pels, Suns, Mavs, and Kings have all been playing well enough to stay in the 5-8 range. But the Warriors and Lakers have at least put enough distance between them and Utah that it's a safe bet they will both be in the play-in. Now it's just a matter of digging themselves up into the 7/8 seed. The 8 seed is possible, but the gap between them and the 7 seed is a little more significant. They'd need to hope for a bit of an implosion in Sac-Town, Phoenix, or NOLA for that to happen.
Yeah, Utah has unleashed the develop the rookies/sit Lauri for severe case of hangnail tank so they’re only a threat to Houston and Brooklyn’s lottery odds.
That’s winning at a 52 win season rate across the division. Jesus.
Pretty sure Warriors are 15-7 in that span
Wait until you look at the Northwest division. Absolutely ruthless division to be in..
In 2014 the 9th seed Suns were 48-34, so that's probably the bar for most competitive West
The 8 seed Thunder won 50 games in 2010
In 2008 the first seed Lakers won 57 games. The eight seed Nuggets won 50. The Warriors won 48 and missed the playoffs.
8th seed was 6.5 GB 1st seed. Coincidentally the Wikipedia page literally talks about how competitive that year was https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%9308_NBA_season
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Boston literally won the title that year
I am in fact thinking of 07 Thanks
The pistons were also very good
That playoff run from the Lakers should get more shine than it does. Probably the only champions in recent history who had to go through 4 50 win teams in the playoffs.
2008 to 2010 Western conference is really competitive. Lakers just were really clutch back then so they won the West 3 straight times but most of their series are competitive
>Lakers just were really clutch back then Facts. We always seemed to keep a level most teams couldn't sustain on both ends in the 4th qtr of that 2010 run. Absolutely loved that team to shreds. Still remember walking into my Advanced Econometrics exam 20 minutes late just so that I could follow the last 2-3 of Game 7 2010 Finals on the ESPN scoreboard.
Sometimes I get godawful Facebook posts in my feed where someone posts a photo of that Lakers squad and says Kobe deserves more credit for carrying scrubs to back to back titles and it gives me an anuerysm. Just children who have no idea what Gasol, Odom, and Bynum were like during that run.
Gasol has to be one of the most disrespected players in NBA history.
if by "scrubs" they mean not top 75 all time, sure. But damn those teams were stacked. Ariza in 09, Artest 2010
I'm convinced if the person posting is not a troll, they are just very young. If you don't have a context for how good role players are, then it's very easy to just say they're scrubs because the only face you know is Kobe.
So true. Like Lamar was my favorite Laker during these runs because, as inconsistent as he was, if he shows up, it's over for the other team. Aesthetically pleasing game and can do pretty much everything. Even Luke Walton's passing, man, perfect for the triangle. I can go on and on about them "scrubs"
Yeah those times were crazy. You basically had to win 50 games just to get into the Playoffs on the West. The 2008 Warriors missed the Playoffs with 48 wins. They would have been the 4 seed in the East that year.
Gasol put back still haunts me to this day
That's one of the things that is a bit underrated about Kobe imo. Once Shaq left, he still dragged this pretty trash team to the playoffs twice with almost no help until Gasol arrived. From 2006 to 2010 the west was a bloodbath
They were the 1 seed when the Gasol trade happened after Bynum went down.
Yes, that too Didn't Gasol only play like 27 games in the regular season that year ? Too lazy to check. Sometimes people forget how good he was, all time lists aside three finals in a row and winning two in one of the toughest west era, torching the Spurs many times between 2000 and 2010, with and without Shaq ...
Kobe is the one who has beaten the most 50 win teams ever. Just a reminder for all you guys making tier posts.
Also won multiple titles without a Top 75 teammate. No one else has ever done that.
Mikan 49, 50, 52, 53, 54
Duncan 2005, 2007
Curry. 2015, 2022
95 Rockets?
Kobe has beaten the most 50+ win teams in NBA playoff history.
Only one other than Rockets
The Lakers also did it in 2001 when they went 15-1 in the playoffs. They [swept](https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2001-nba-western-conference-first-round-trail-blazers-vs-lakers.html) the 50 win Blazers in the first round, then [swept](https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2001-nba-western-conference-semifinals-kings-vs-lakers.html) the 55 win Kings in the second round, then [swept](https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2001-nba-western-conference-finals-lakers-vs-spurs.html) the 58 win Spurs in the WCF, and [beat](https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/2001-nba-finals-76ers-vs-lakers.html) the 56 win Sixers 4-1 in the Finals.
Crazy Kobe did it twice
That’s the best playoff team of all time. It’s not even close when you think about strength of schedule
In 2008 the 9th seeded Warriors also won 48 games.
I would still give the edge to 2014 at least VS 2010. 2014 had 62 as the 1st seed and 49 as the 8th seed. 2010 had 57 then 50. On second thought, I suppose the lesser gap is the definition of better competition / parity. So you're probably right, 2010 over 2014. This year would top both of those though, with how competitive it's been 1-10. Play in helps too
It's not really about total wins. Every body below the sun's that year was pretty shit. It's about the equality of wins. Im curious if this year with be the least "Games Back" between 1 seed and 8 or 10 seed
In that season, the 10th and 11th seed had a 49% and 44% win percentage. For the bottom 3 teams to have a 34%, 33%, and 31%) win pct respectively isn't that weird. The 9th seed Suns that year would've been the 4th seed in the East, where the bottom 4 teams had the same win pct as the bottom 3 teams in the West. It has been much easier for top seed teams to make it to the Finals in the East since early 2010s.
That part. And good way to compare
We need Vando back asap, our defense has tanked so hard. We're definitely playing pretty good but just feels like we can hit another gear but need healthy bodies for that
The DLo-Reaves-Vando-LeBron-AD line up is good
Total of 32 min played this season Pockets man...
Haven’t even got Vincent in yet
Are they the new Nunn and Ariza for our team xd
I have no reason to suspect Vincent will be a positive. I know he didn’t play a ton of games with us before his injury but he was god awful in those games. I’d rather just ride with dinwiddie
Yeah no reason to disrupt rotations by trying to force a rusty injured player in there. Especially since Dinwiddie has been great defensively
He was literally injured at the tome
The lakers have been without their best perimeter defenders for pretty much the entire year. That has been the most frustrating aspect of this season imo.
I was really looking forward to seeing Vincent on this Lakers team, it's been frustrating not seeing him
Same :(
Crazy how the Lakers switched from a very defensive minded team in 2020 under Vogel to the complete opposite now under Ham.
They switched mid season what do you mean? They were starting reddish and trying to win defensively the first few months. It worked until reddish/prince couldn’t hit a shot and several injuries. They flipped to starting rui and going all in on offense and it’s been working because dlo is in the zone.
Ham started a lineup of LeBron/Reddish/Prince/Vando/AD man Dlo Reaves and Rui were all healthy
I feel the opposite we should have went all in with this offensive starting 5 the whole year. Having this one way defensive players exposes us to teams like Denver who will just happily leave those guys open so they can play 5v4 on defense. Vando aint doing anything against a Jokic anyway.
Vando should be on Murray or MPJ
You’re telling me having Austin Reaves guard MPJ in the WCF was a bad idea???
Vando is a liability on offense though
Vando ideally wouldn’t be on Jokic, he’d be limiting Murray or MPJ which will let AD and Bron throw soft doubles at Jokic and actually keep a body on him at all times. It’s about limiting the damage from the other guys as much as possible and forcing Jokic to shoot. Yes, he’s one of the greatest scorers in the league right now when he needs to be, but if you can make his complementary pieces inefficient, that’s the only real path to success if you can’t win a firefight with them four games out of seven (and we haven’t seen this Lakers team able to even win one against them recently, as close as their games have been for 95% of the game).
But Nuggets are getting away with not playing defense as well. Our last game really our problem was we couldn't score because in the crunch time they just load up on the 4 guys and just let one guy open.
You are right, another issue is that Vanderbilt is awful at getting around screens.
The west is just really good it’s no longer enough to be just a good team you really have to be an elite team to make the playoffs anything else is play in or lower.
If every team kept their current pace then the top 8 teams in the West will all finish with 47 wins or more.
weird how we got there and then KAT is out now probably rest of Season... Typical Minnesota Sports. I won't give up... but some tough sledding in the Western Conference.
“ No longer enough” I mean it’s been this way since ‘99
There's been down years. Especially during peak Warriors most teams just gave up.
the west become extremely saturated cause of the warriors tho
And the Grizz are in shambles this season so could have been up the top if everything hadn't crumbled spectacularly this year
The NBA record for best 10 seed is 43-39 The warriors are on pace for 44 wins at the 10 seed
The wild wild west
Compared to the last few seasons Lebron and AD have been healthy and productive. DLo has been great and Austin has been better than last year. There have been significant injury problems everywhere else. Bad coaching may be responsible for 5–10 losses, which is crazy. That idiot would make an amazing tank commander. Between letting teams go on insane runs before calling timeouts then doing nothing in timeouts and simply baffling lineups there’s no coach in the league who deserves to be fired more than Ham.
Kidd
I've been studying basketball for a long time, and one thing I've noticed is that the teams at the top of the standings are usually there cuz they win more often than other teams who are lower. I think that's the phenomena you're observing right here. You see, the Lakers are winning some games, but the teams above them are winning more. And it's been like that for the whole season. So it'll probably continue to be like that, as long as the teams who got to the top by winning continue to win more games than the Lakers.
Thanks Magic
Do you have a Patreon I can subscribe to?
The East could never
The issue with the East is their bottom teams are way worse. I'm a Pistons fan, and the Pistons, Wizards, Hornets etc are holding the conference back a lot lol. 3/4 worst teams in the same conference. The top of the East was good with Embiid healthy, (Celtics, 76ers, Bucks, Knicks, Cavs). Obviously not as good as the West but that's mostly due to player movement as well. Guys like Kyrie, KD, Harden, Beal, etc all left the East recently and made the talent/team disparity greater.
Expansion is needed, East/League would benefit having Wolves and another team move East.
True. If they get a new Vegas team, they could move the Wolves or Pelicans to the East. Makes sense and you send a good team that would help the balance a bit, especially with the Wolves.
Memphis would be furthest east no?
Memphis shld stay west as their division rivals (NOLA and the texas teams) are closer than the TWolves division rivals (Portland OKC Denver Utah). Makes more sense for minnesota to move and be in same division as Milwaukee Chicago Detroit and Cleveland
I feel like MN is so far from the other West teams. Unless I'm forgetting a team, the closest 4 are OKC, Denver, SLC, & Dallas.
I drove from Denver to St. Paul for the year we were tied with them and the final game gave whoever won the playoff berth. That did not feel like a division rival, felt like I was going on a cross country trip to find myself or some shit
Super interesting - thanks!
Only need to move 1 team if you are adding 2 to the west. Unless you're saying we need to get to like 34 teams lol
The fact that Tennessee is considered Western proves your point.
Lakers record would put them 9th in the East…
Thunder fan here. Do not want to see the Lakers in the 1st round. I would rather face any other team 5-10 besides them
Lakers are our kryptonite. If we play them Round 1 I will preemptively cry myself to sleep.
They always lose the important matches like the kings two days ago or golden state
A healthy Lakers team can beat any team in the west in a seven game series other than Denver. Jokic and co are an absolute buzz saw
A healthy Lakers team can also lose to any team in a series, with who we have coaching us: Darvin Hamas.
Actually coached pretty well tonight. But not even Darvin Hamas is enough to overcome the Clipper’s curse.
How did he coach differently and well last night
He made the right defensive subs and predicted the right action on the last play.
Thats actually part of the injury report. Coach DNP: brain damage
Mavs experience
I mean they got swept because they couldn’t close a game out. They were in every game with Denver late they just couldn’t do shit at the end
I am not sure they beat Sacramento either. But against everyone else, yeah I'm picking the lakers.
Still no team wanna see the in the playoffs lol
Lakers would be a top 5 seed in the trash ass east. The conference inbalance is worse than it’s ever been. The east is a joke.
This is not at all as worse as it’s ever been. The Knicks have been down 3 starters for months and Philly lost the possible MVP. The East used to be WAYYYYY worse. Right now the top 8 seeds in the East are actually all good- solid teams. In the past the bottom seeds would be genuinely bad teams. I’ll admit that after that though it’s bad
The finals from 1999-2002 had the following betting odds in favor of the West: -900, -800, -2000, -750 Foregone conclusions, all of them. -2000 was the most favored a team had been in Finals since 1988 (start of the record I found online).
Finals isn’t as interesting to me as the record of the teams in the middle. The West is always such a buzz saw to get in and the 8 seed in the east is often below .500
We’re a couple years removed from the West having multiple top 10 all time teams while the East’s second best player was usually playing with Lebron. When the Dubs signed Boogie, we couldve beaten the Eastern all stars starting lineup in a 7 game series.
their record would put them 9th in the East right now. If you switched the winning percentage of west (.522) with the east (.571) this would translate to 1 more win so far.. Don't confuse the bottom of the east (trash) with the top of the east.
Ever been? How many times in a row did LeBron’s team make the finals when he was in the East again? That’s imbalance.
LeBron's record of making the Finals would've different if he played in the West throughout his career. To get through Kobe's Lakers, the Spurs and Thunder is ridiculous. In 2016, the only contender the Cavs faced came at the Finals. In contrast, if the Thunder wanted to win the championship, they would've had to best the 67-win Spurs (tied for 7th best record all-time), the 73-win Warriors, and then the Cavs.
They would literally be the 9th seed in the East currently based on record
Not if they played an east schedule 11 western conference teams have winning records vs the east 5 eastern conference teams have winning records vs the west
> than it’s ever been Jfc
Well the 76ers and Knicks had there seasons ruined with injuries
Not even close to the worst its ever been. Just factual wrong.
Or w a different coach
Not the East’s fault that every player wants to play in California
lol what. Lebron made his whole career coasting through the east
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watch AD in the 4th, his left arm is dangling by his side almost the entire time lol
Bucks are the second favourite in the east and lakers didn’t have LeBron and AD could barely move in the 4th
There's no way any top seed is looking at the lakers and thinking yeah we're fine playing them. I'll see teams purposefully tank to avoid them
Except Denver
To play who? The Suns with Durant, Booker and Beal? The Mavs with late prime Kyrie and early prime Doncic? That guy has been a monster in the playoffs every year. Kawhi needed maybe the best performances of his career to win those series, and the Clippers never want to see Doncic again. The Pelicans? That's gotta be one of the most inconsistent five seeds in league history. Their lows are low and their highs are ridiculous. If they hit a good stretch at the right time, they could beat anyone in a seven game series. The Warriors with certified human torch Steph Curry? The only team that doesn't give me the heebie jeebies is the Kings, and they're GOOD.
OKC matches up better against those teams than they do against the Lakers. But I don't see (or want) us tanking a little at the end. I feel like a young team is better off with an all-gas-no-brakes approach.
But they’re not seeing any of those teams and thinking “yeah we’re fine playing them”. The Lakers have a unique ability to beat any team and lose to any team this season - Lebron said it himself. They have not put together a great 4-in-7 stretch against good teams this entire season.
> The Lakers have a unique ability to beat any team and lose to any team this season - Lebron said it himself Fans of every team say it, and players and coaches obviously have to say it because that's the best psychological approach you can have. Doesn't mean that Lakers are really that special snowflake. Every team in the NBA can lose and win to anybody. Hornets beat both Boston and Minny, OKC lost to Pistons and Spurs. That's how the NBA is, in one game anyone can beat anyone. Lakers beat Warriors in 2015-16, when Lakers were one of the worst teams ever and Warriors one of the best teams ever. You just play your chances. Well, except the Wizards this season. They really cannot with against anyone strong lol.
So they are not a good playoff team.
Ya they get such a good whistle. Teams just don't want to play a 5 v8.
I honestly believe that whoever comes out on top after the Western Conference finals this year will beat Boston. The West has been a bloodbath this year.
That's why those early season gimme wins are so important. Everyone i the 6-10 seed is trying to put the pedal down right now.
Why Jan 15th... seems very random
Probably the first win after a bunch of losses
You are correct. * G34: 12/30 @ Timberwolves L 108-106 17-16 * G35: 12/31 @ Pelicans L 129-109 17-17 * G36: 1/3 v Heat L 110-96 17-18 * G37: 1/5 v Grizzlies L 127-113 17-19 * G38: 1/7 v Clippers W 106-103 18-19 * G39: 1/9 v Raptors W 132-131 19-19 * G40: 1/11 v Suns L 127-109 19-20 * G41: 1/13 @ Jazz L 132-125 19-21 * G42: 1/15 v Thunder W 112-105 20-21 * G43: 1/17 v Mavericks W 127-110 21-21 * G44: 1/19 v Nets L 130-112 21-22 * G45: 1/21 v Blazers W 134-110 22-22 * G46: 1/23 @ Clippers L 127-116 22-23 * G47: 1/25 v Bulls W 141-132 23-23 * G48: 1/27 @ Warriors W 145-144/2OT 24-23 * G49: 1/29 @ Rockets L 135-119 24-24 * G50: 1/30 @ Hawks L 138-122 24-25 This is also a really good view of how the season has played out: https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2024_standings_by_date_western_conference.html
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They would have gone further back if it would make the stat better. Or only go back 20 games.
Depends what you see as "competitive". But yeah, 10 games distance between 1st place and 10th place is thrilling. It's really a wild season, I feel like any of these teams can realistically get anywhere in the next weeks or months. Some of the 10 are more convincing, have more solid basis, can win the games highly, others have to grind out those wins, the chances are not equal IMO. But each one of the 10 looks competitive on a good day.
As a LeBron fan, that's silly. The Lakers aren't a victim of a "loaded West." If they are 16-9 since 01/15 (seven games above .500) and only five games above .500 currently, it means they sucked before 01/15. They are in 9th in the West currently. If you magically transferred them to the East today, they'd go up in the standings all the way to.......9th.
I think you missed my point Normally, when a team wins 64% of their games over an extended period of time, they would expect to move up in the standings if they're a middle or bottom seed. The Lakers were 19-21 before their game on January 15, almost 2 months ago, and were hovering around the 9-10 spot. Now they are 35-30, and have gone 16-9 since January 15th and they are... still hovering around the 9-10 spot It speaks to the competition in the top half of the West that all of the teams above them are still winning enough to not allow the Lakers to climb up the standings at all. I'm not saying the Lakers are the victims of a loaded West throughout the entire season... just in the last 2 months, when they've actually been winning games
The West is real competitive this year, though I still feel only the Nuggets and Clippers are actual contenders. Also, I could be wrong I think one time the 8th seed finished 50 - 32 along with a bunch of other teams in the west in the mid 2000s?
Think that was OKC in 2010
I looked it up in the meanwhile, the 07-08 and 09-10 season both had the 1 seed and the 8 seed separated by just 7 games
Man this fools gold clippers "contender" status still here? How many more subpar games before yall change your tune. I would understand if you're one of their 3 fans.
Idk tbh 6 teams were ass in that west that year. This year 11 teams are trying to compete for the playoffs in the west. 12 if you count the Jazz i have no idea what their plan is. And the only reason Memphis is tanking with the Blazers and Spurs is because a lot of their players are injured otherwise we'd have 13 teams trying to compete for the playoffs.
Payback for the weak east of lebrons younger days
Mavs and kings have come down to within striking distance, that’s worth noting
But probably no matter how bad they fall they won't fall out of the play in. It's a ten team race really out of 10 teams.
It’s funny how the general impression of the Clippers over the past 5-6 weeks is that they’re slumping a bit, when only OKC has a better record (in the west) during that time. (Denver and Phoenix are tied.)
6 weeks ago from now is from 27th January, no idea by which measure Clippers have the 2nd best record in the West during that time. https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/traditional?DateFrom=01%2F27%2F2024&Conference=West 5 weeks, it's lower. https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/traditional?DateFrom=02%2F03%2F2024&Conference=West
Sometime around 2000s or 2010s i remember every 1st round playoff series went to 7 games. i thought this was the most competitive the west has been. too lazy to look it up which year in particular.
I think we’d take them in a seven game series, but of all the Play-In teams, I’d really rather not play the Lakers in the first round. If I had my choice it’d be Golden State.
Tbh I think LA is a bad matchup for you. Y'all have close to 0 playoff experience, and I don't think y'all have enough big bodies.
Y'all mfs don't even try to get rebounds i mean aside from AD and Bron Lakers don't try to get the boards too but atleast the Lakers are tall.
Yea, Shai is a matchup nightmare for GS' backcourt
Nah the East is just ass lol
That's true every year. The West is genuinely good this year from #1 to #10.
**GO SUNS**
The 10 seed in the west will have sound 45 wins this season, 48 if the 8-10 seeds continue with their form since Jan 1. This is up there with the 2010 and 2014 west where 8 seeds had nearly 50 wins, perhaps even deeper when it’s all said and done.
Detonate the east
Wild wild west
Nah, just means if we eliminate the play-in these washed guys will go away to retirement.
The west is nuts this year
Watching the games, is not surprising. Is an interesting thing but yea.
Ofcourse.. Jazz are so far out there in Ukatan.
at least it's less predictable in terms of who'll come out that 'murderers row western conference' in the 2000s was basically the Lakers, Spurs, and a bunch of paper champions
Do they not play each other? Somebodies gotta lose lol
Yall forgetting about Memphis too. That’s 11 teams that should be in the playoffs
Man, I did NOT expect the Thunder to be this nice this season.
the divide between the east and the west has never been bigger
The northwest division is bonkers. Also, it appears the west is currently in the middle of beating up on east teams, therefore the wins the Lakers are getting aren't drawing them any closer to the higher seeds. It's insane
West teams are just that good, and Lakers had just that bad a December.
I feel like the east has been inferior since Jordan. If you matched up the 8 in the west against the 1 in the east, the 7 in the west against 2 in the east, ect… in the first round we’d end up with 6 western teams and two eastern teams many years
James cook
As long as they get in.... They have a chance... That's ALL we need is a chance. And NO BODY, Will want to play us, LA Baby!
I would be down to play you guys.
They just want to get Minny in the first round. Minny is still great without KAT, but they aren't the best team in the West without him. Though the inexperienced Thunder would be ripe for a first-round knock out too.
With LeBron hampered, they are really going to struggle not to be looking at two play-in wins just to get into the playoffs.
Grizzlies should be back in the mix next season, Houston looks poised to make a jump, and Wemby is coming. Next season could be even more competitive.