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In the playoffs, what teams should look to avoid the Lakers?


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Somewhere, I stated that, if the Lakers make the playoffs, they will be pretty dangerous because it only means that they are meshing and on a roll, record-wise.

 

Now, it's starting to look that way, and they are currently 8th.

 

Kobe is playing some of the best basketball of his career, in his 17th season.  Dwight is playing better than he has in any other month of the season.  Nash is starting to shoot more shots, and learning how to play off of Kobe.

 

1) San Antonio Spurs

2) Oklahoma City Thunder

3) Memphis Grizzlies

4) Los Angeles Clippers

5) Denver Nuggets

6) Golden State Warriors

7) Houston Rockets

8) Los Angeles Lakers 

 

This is the West after the Lakers beat Chicago today.

 

What teams should avoid the Lakers, in any round of the playoffs?

 

FYI - Pau Gasol will be back for the playoffs.

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I would say Denver. 

 

The Lakers have always had Denver's number with Kobe.

 

Other than that, I'm shocked that all the talking heads on ESPN think the Lakers can upset San Antonio. The Spurs get no respect.

I think LA would have a better chance against the Spurs, man.  Denver is amazing at home, and will have HCA over the Lakers.  They are also the fastest team in the NBA.

 

San Antonio gets respect for their regular season play, but as great as they are in the standings, how often has that translated into series victories since their last championship in 2007?

 

Doesn't help that they lost to a #8 when they were the top-ranked seed going in.

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I think LA would have a better chance against the Spurs, man.  Denver is amazing at home, and will have HCA over the Lakers.  They are also the fastest team in the NBA.

 

San Antonio gets respect for their regular season play, but as great as they are in the standings, how often has that translated into series victories since their last championship in 2007?

 

Doesn't help that they lost to a #8 when they were the top-ranked seed going in.

 

Eh. 

 

Memphis was literally the worst matchup for San Antonio that year and the Grizz have been a top 4 seed since that upset (even took the Thunder to 7 games the same year. Simply panning the Grizzlies as an 8th seed is unfair), and last year the Spurs were on an incredible roll (are we just going to forget how great they were in the postseason last year?) but just ran into a much better team in OKC. 

 

Plenty of reasons to want to avoid the Spurs with the biggest being Tim Duncan's resurgent year (top 8ish player this season) and Tony Parker probably ripping Nash to shreds. 

 

If I'm one of San Antonio/OKC/LAC/Denver, I'm not afraid of the Lakers. They're on a roll now but they still only have 2 significant threats in the perimeter (Kobe and Nash, granted the former has been unbelievable lately), no depth whatsoever, and they are a bottom 3 defensive team in the NBA whenever Dwight sits (12th when he's on the floor). Generally that isn't a formula for winning in a playoff setting even if Kobe has been playing like a top 3 player in the last month. 

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I dont think Denver or OKC would fear us as much as San Antonio.  The Spurs should be the most scared, and I wouldnt be surprised to see them tanking a few games at the end of the season to avoid us. 

 

Nobody would want to play us in the first round though, the first round is supposed to be an easy opponent.  If we dont win, we could easily have a 7 game series. 

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