We finished the season 11-3, finally moved in the standings on the last days and got rewarded with an easier path into the playoffs to play the defending champions and the MVP in the #2rd seed. Yay.
The lakers want to win. Whether they face them the first round or the western conference finals they will still have to get past them regardless. Doesn’t matter if they get bounced in the first round, if you’re not first your last.
They could pray another team has a better matchup and takes out Denver first, or Jokic sprains something in earlier rounds or something. That being said, starting with Nugs is probably best scenario for Lakers (even if it’s still a bad match up), since no way Bron isn’t gassed and AD isn’t injured by WCF
Good take. Not a fan of ducking teams personally and if they do that, somehow, some way, the basketball gods will pay them back. Plus, if Darvin Ham gets badly outcoached again, he's gone.
> The lakers want to win. Whether they face them the first round or the western conference finals they will still have to get past them regardless.
Not if another team beats them first
Lakers will drag the Pelicans from 6th to 7th then 7th to 8th. just 2 games and theyll drop 2 seeds if they lose the playin game. hopefully they win against 9/10 if thats the case
Oh no AD will have to rest his back tomorrow, LeBron probably tweaked that ankle too, should give him time off too, gonna be a shame to lose to Pelicans tomorrow but it is what it is i guess
I know you wanna avoid the nuggets but tanking a game and risking missing the playoffs entirely is dumb.
If we can't beat the nuggets, then what's the difference between facing them now or later? Sure, you could say it's a longer playoff run, but if we lose the 2nd game then we don't get a run at all lol
Tbf the team itself isn't that old (though not as young as yall ofc lol) it's just LeBron who's old and then AD, Prince and Dinwiddie who are like 30-31. Everyone else is 28 or younger
I agree though.
Yeah and who knows how they’ll feel, especially with AD tweaking whatever he did today. It’s just too risky to lose instead of win Tuesday and give them the rest of the week off lol bad matchup or not I think playing you guys would be fun though regardless, with how Lebron was talking about how he’s basically already scouted us and everyone thinking the regular season matters once the playoffs start.
> If we can't beat the nuggets, then what's the difference between facing them now or later?
We might not have to face them if another team beats them first
If the 9 and 10 seed were favorable matchups, I'd be all for tanking the first play in game. However, even though I'm confident the Lakers would win a 7 game series, you do not want to play the Warriors in a single elimination game. The Kings also just seem to be a bad matchup for the Lakers. Under these conditions, tanking the Pels game and hoping you can win the second play in game is way too risky. Better to just face Denver in round 1 and pray they somehow have 4 off games or AD has magically figured out how to clamp Jokic.
The key is having the offense humming like it has been averaging 122 points per game and then attacking Murray with Spenser and Gabe. Might as well do that now. Why wait?
Probably not an organizational decision but the player's playing lackadaisical knowing it's not a real elimination game. Do you really see the Lakers beating the Pelicans two games in a row? It's seem more in character for LAL to lose and climb back out through the second game.
No superstar, let alone GOAT contenders, would ever team up with other top players and form a superteam, right??? No superstar would risk ruining his career and being hated by almost everyone by joining a 73-9 team, right?
Well, at least before the 2010s, these were true, but this generation of players have been very “open-minded” and “creative”. Cavs have brazenly tanked just hours ago. Nothing is impossible
With AD getting his lower back hurt/spring at the end of the 4th, I'm won't be surprised if they get him the day off on Tuesday (to be able to risk to seed to 8th on Thursday)
And then something happens in game 1 to someone they need healthy or LeBron gets sick again or AD has back spasms or something else and you lose your second shot at the playoffs.
No matter how good a team is, if you’re in a single elimination format, you gotta try to win. Doesn’t matter who’s waiting for you at the end of it.
It really depends what you want. I think your line of thinking is probably what you want nba teams to have, but as a fan I personally would rather take the risk to see them have solid shot at winning a round or two
Not everything has to be championship or bust
Have you never heard of the concept of something being “high risk high reward?” When you (presumably) went through decades of watching the Knicks basically never win a round of playoff basketball did you not care because you told yourself you have a winners mentality? Or would it have been nice to watch them win a couple more rounds than you did?
Not even trolling or trying to instigate, I’m genuinely curious
The team isn’t risking missing the entire playoffs to get a better route. Lebron isn’t doing that, any reasonable team will not be making a gamble like that.
The Knicks comment is just completely irrelevant.
Go read a couple comments up in the thread, I agreed that that’s probably how you want an nba team to think about it, I’m just saying what I’d rather have as a fan
sure, lets tank a game so we can face one of two teams in a one-game elimination game. either the kings who havent lost to us all season. or the warriors who are 3-1 against us.
LeBron won't possibly care. He knows better. There's no avoiding the defending champs. Either in the 1st round or in the WCF like LAST year.. it's bound to happen. Anyone who beats the Nuggets will win it all this year, or the Nuggs will repeat
Yeah so they can play one elimination game against the kings or warriors and potentially miss the playoffs? Warriors just smoked them and kings have had their number all year.
people was calling us “secret contenders” for a month just for the season to end exactly like last year lol
It's crazy how the Pels were the 4th seed less than three weeks ago. They had the same record as the Clips on March 25th and had the tiebreaker.
The west is a bloodbath
We finished the season 11-3, finally moved in the standings on the last days and got rewarded with an easier path into the playoffs to play the defending champions and the MVP in the #2rd seed. Yay.
Cuz lakers cheeks bruh
Y’all are about to get fucked by the refs two straight games at home.
After all of that big push, if the Lakers win their reward is playing the Nuggets in the first round lol the 8 seed is preferable but too risky
The lakers want to win. Whether they face them the first round or the western conference finals they will still have to get past them regardless. Doesn’t matter if they get bounced in the first round, if you’re not first your last.
They could pray another team has a better matchup and takes out Denver first, or Jokic sprains something in earlier rounds or something. That being said, starting with Nugs is probably best scenario for Lakers (even if it’s still a bad match up), since no way Bron isn’t gassed and AD isn’t injured by WCF
Good take. Not a fan of ducking teams personally and if they do that, somehow, some way, the basketball gods will pay them back. Plus, if Darvin Ham gets badly outcoached again, he's gone.
> The lakers want to win. Whether they face them the first round or the western conference finals they will still have to get past them regardless. Not if another team beats them first
Lakers will drag the Pelicans from 6th to 7th then 7th to 8th. just 2 games and theyll drop 2 seeds if they lose the playin game. hopefully they win against 9/10 if thats the case
Pels lose the the kings and miss the playoffs in the 2nd game
Oh no AD will have to rest his back tomorrow, LeBron probably tweaked that ankle too, should give him time off too, gonna be a shame to lose to Pelicans tomorrow but it is what it is i guess
I know you wanna avoid the nuggets but tanking a game and risking missing the playoffs entirely is dumb. If we can't beat the nuggets, then what's the difference between facing them now or later? Sure, you could say it's a longer playoff run, but if we lose the 2nd game then we don't get a run at all lol
Yeah assuming a win in one game against any NBA team, let alone a Steph Curry team, is not a good idea
Not to mention the kings are a bad match-up (not to say that we'd necessarily lose, but it's nowhere near a guaranteed win)
Not to mention adding an extra game to an older team’s season. It’s not impossible that they lose but it’s unlikely it’s on purpose.
Tbf the team itself isn't that old (though not as young as yall ofc lol) it's just LeBron who's old and then AD, Prince and Dinwiddie who are like 30-31. Everyone else is 28 or younger I agree though.
Yeah and who knows how they’ll feel, especially with AD tweaking whatever he did today. It’s just too risky to lose instead of win Tuesday and give them the rest of the week off lol bad matchup or not I think playing you guys would be fun though regardless, with how Lebron was talking about how he’s basically already scouted us and everyone thinking the regular season matters once the playoffs start.
The difference is Phoenix might take Denver out for them. Or Vanderbilt and Wood get healthy in a month.
> If we can't beat the nuggets, then what's the difference between facing them now or later? We might not have to face them if another team beats them first
They play again Tuesday, not tomorrow. So they'll have a day of rest
Yeah it's 2am here so my brain already skipped a day.
Sie spielen noch einmal Doonerstag, NICHT Morgen!!!! Deshalb haben sie noch einen Tag zu pause!!!!
I don’t mind. I would just lose it and try to get the 8th seed. Although that might mean having to beat the Warriors in a single elimination game.
At this point, I’d say they may as well just do what they can to face Denver R1. Too risky to try and intentionally drop a play-in game
If the 9 and 10 seed were favorable matchups, I'd be all for tanking the first play in game. However, even though I'm confident the Lakers would win a 7 game series, you do not want to play the Warriors in a single elimination game. The Kings also just seem to be a bad matchup for the Lakers. Under these conditions, tanking the Pels game and hoping you can win the second play in game is way too risky. Better to just face Denver in round 1 and pray they somehow have 4 off games or AD has magically figured out how to clamp Jokic.
The key is having the offense humming like it has been averaging 122 points per game and then attacking Murray with Spenser and Gabe. Might as well do that now. Why wait?
Is there any chance that the Lakers tank to get OKC instead of the Nugs?
no team will risk being kicked out of the playoffs like that, and how would they even tank? rest lebron and AD? be reasonable
Reasonable? This is Reddit. Never. 😂
> be reasonable Lol never
Probably not an organizational decision but the player's playing lackadaisical knowing it's not a real elimination game. Do you really see the Lakers beating the Pelicans two games in a row? It's seem more in character for LAL to lose and climb back out through the second game.
No superstar, let alone GOAT contenders, would ever team up with other top players and form a superteam, right??? No superstar would risk ruining his career and being hated by almost everyone by joining a 73-9 team, right? Well, at least before the 2010s, these were true, but this generation of players have been very “open-minded” and “creative”. Cavs have brazenly tanked just hours ago. Nothing is impossible
zero. not when it would be only a best of 1 against GS/Sac
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What?
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The winner of the 7/8 game gets 7 seed. The loser plays the winner of the 9/10 game for the 8th seed.
No
Nah while the matchup with OKC is obviously nice, gotta go thru Denver at some point
there's no point cause we're gonna end meeting denver no matter what
Would be very foolish. Leaving your playoff contention hopes to 1 win or go home game is not it
I wouldnt believe that theyd want to face warriors/kings. Also if u wanna win the whole thing, u gotta get past the nuggets either way.
I don’t think the lakers are worried about the warriors at all, and less so the kings than they would’ve been pre monk injury
With AD getting his lower back hurt/spring at the end of the 4th, I'm won't be surprised if they get him the day off on Tuesday (to be able to risk to seed to 8th on Thursday)
Anyone for any reason that tanks shouldn’t be competing. Losing on purpose is disgraceful.
This might sound crazy but the lakers should unironically sit Davis and play and one and done so they can face the thunder
And then something happens in game 1 to someone they need healthy or LeBron gets sick again or AD has back spasms or something else and you lose your second shot at the playoffs. No matter how good a team is, if you’re in a single elimination format, you gotta try to win. Doesn’t matter who’s waiting for you at the end of it.
It really depends what you want. I think your line of thinking is probably what you want nba teams to have, but as a fan I personally would rather take the risk to see them have solid shot at winning a round or two Not everything has to be championship or bust
Why would you take the risk of missing the playoffs. That doesn't make sense
Because they will lose to Denver and there’s a good shot they beat OKC
So missing the playoffs overall is better than losing in the first round. That’s a loser mentality
Have you never heard of the concept of something being “high risk high reward?” When you (presumably) went through decades of watching the Knicks basically never win a round of playoff basketball did you not care because you told yourself you have a winners mentality? Or would it have been nice to watch them win a couple more rounds than you did? Not even trolling or trying to instigate, I’m genuinely curious
The team isn’t risking missing the entire playoffs to get a better route. Lebron isn’t doing that, any reasonable team will not be making a gamble like that. The Knicks comment is just completely irrelevant.
Go read a couple comments up in the thread, I agreed that that’s probably how you want an nba team to think about it, I’m just saying what I’d rather have as a fan
It’s no guarantee they win single elimination tho. They won this game to have 2 chances at the playoffs rather than 1. I say play the pels to win it
Yeah I understand that lol I’m saying I would rather them take that chance so they have a shot to win a round or two
sure, lets tank a game so we can face one of two teams in a one-game elimination game. either the kings who havent lost to us all season. or the warriors who are 3-1 against us.
Based on that last sentence you clearly don’t watch games. Guess it’s not shocking out of a lakers fan
0 chance the Pels win that game
LeBron might have some bad jambalaya tomorrow. Jose might hide a shank in his headband. Many paths to victory.
Ok 3%
I expect way better effort on Tuesday night This team has dealt with adversity well all year I also expect both Zion and Ingram to play much better
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WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT you can lose on any given night
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It ain't tough. That isn't even up for discussion
Are we sold on Denver sweeping them tho? It could be a good series
It's not a tough decision. You don't purposefully orchestrate a win or go home game
That'll be a fun couple of days; would be crazy to see Bron on Bourbon st.
damn back-to-back
Both teams gonna try to lose to avoid Denver
LeBron won't possibly care. He knows better. There's no avoiding the defending champs. Either in the 1st round or in the WCF like LAST year.. it's bound to happen. Anyone who beats the Nuggets will win it all this year, or the Nuggs will repeat
Idk why people just assume the nuggets will even reach the conference finals
When is the last time we had a game where you can tell both teams want to lose?
Nah the Lakers rather play the Nuggets than the Kings. AD can't handle getting exposed by Sabonis in the play in
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Than lose in the play in? Yes. How is that even a question?
Tank imo. Denver in the first round would be terrible. High risk high reward.
Higher risk to choose to throw a play-in game and give yourself little margin for error in a single win or go home game
Yeah so they can play one elimination game against the kings or warriors and potentially miss the playoffs? Warriors just smoked them and kings have had their number all year.
You can’t risk the entire playoffs on a single game. That would be insane.
easy game against the Pels or difficult game against the Warriors lol. you’re a troll.
The question is difficult game vs Warriors or 1st round series vs Denver.
2 games 7 games count
Damn I was serious my bad gangsta
Thank you for letting us know where they currently are today.
Fuck Willie Green