The NBA needs the Los Angeles Lakers to figure themselves out ahead of the playoffs.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis may be back from injury, but the Los Angeles Lakers are far from championship form at the moment. In fact, after losing six of their last seven games and only going 6-10 since the start of April, the Lakers find themselves in quite the predicament with just a few games before the playoffs.
Because of their recent fall down the Western Conference standings, there’s a chance that the Lakers will have to participate in a play-in tournament in order to officially qualify for the postseason. It would set the team up with a first-round matchup against the Utah Jazz or Phoenix Suns.
Even if the Lakers can avoid the play-in tournament, they’re still looking at a first-round playoff matchup against the LA Clippers or Denver Nuggets. Either way, Los Angeles is looking at an uphill battle to repeat.
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The Los Angeles Lakers don’t have much time to figure things out
More than their potential first-round playoff matchup, what the Lakers should be worrying most about is the way that the team is playing since the return of their two stars. And this is what many feared the most about this team when Davis and LeBron were first diagnosed with their respective injuries.
And if the Lakers aren’t right heading into the playoffs, it won’t just put a damper on their chances of repeating but it could put a huge damper overall on the playoffs overall.
The last thing that the NBA wants to see is the defending champions, with LeBron and Davis leading the charge, making an early playoff exit. The Lakers have it all – they’re the defending champs, have the superstar power, and are THE MARQUEE franchise in the league.
The NBA needs the Lakers in the postseason. Should they fall out in the play-in tournament (still unlikely) or the first round of the playoffs (which is looking more and more like a possibility), it would be a huge hit to what many are expecting to see in the playoffs.
For the sake of the fans, the team, and the league, the Lakers need to figure it out and flip the switch sooner rather than later. The Lakers only have eight games remaining before the start of the playoffs. LeBron and Davis still haven’t looked like their former selves since their return, and there is a growing concern around this team as a whole.
It would be quite surprising to see the Lakers suffer an early playoff exit and would be a huge hit to the NBA playoffs as a whole. The Lakers need to figure it out but, unfortunately, with time quickly running out before the postseason, there’s no guarantee that they will.