The Los Angeles Lakers are a rising serious NBA Championship threat in the Western Conference.
Looking at the Western Conference standings as the countdown until the NBA Playoffs begin, the Los Angeles Lakers are a pretty huge surprise. Having been overlooked for much of the season, the Lakers find themselves sitting as the second seed in the conference with roughly 20 games left in the regular season. With the way the Lakers have slowly begun to round into contender shape, you can't help but wonder if this is a team that should be taken seriously as a championship contender.
For much of the season, I don't think there are many people outside of Los Angeles that envision the Lakers playing at this level right now. All of a sudden, it may be time to throw the Lakers in the same conversation as the likes of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference. The question is, do they deserve to be in that same company? Simply put, are the Lakers genuine championship contenders in the Western Conference?
Why the Los Angeles Lakers should be considered a contender
This could be considered a loaded question, but let's begin with what constitutes a contender in the modern year of the NBA. I'd say star power and being elite on both ends of the floor are what separates the contenders from the pretenders. When you take the entire season snapshot, the Lakers probably don't live up to two of those three barometers. They have the star power, but over the course of the season, I wouldn't say that Los Angeles has consistently had an elite offense or defense. The big question is, how much much of a sample size is "enough" to put championship stock into?
While that is certainly a fair concern, what you can't argue with is the fact that the Lakers are playing great basketball right now. And they're not just beating up on bad teams. Over the last few weeks, Los Angeles has had some impressive wins over the likes of the LA Clippers, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks, and Boston Celtics. If I had to pick a point where we truly saw a turnaround in the team's season, it's probably December 15. Before that date, the Lakers were 13-12 and actually sitting outside the top 10 in the Western Conference standings.
Since then, though, the Lakers are 25-9. Over that span, they have the third-best record in the NBA (behind the Cleveland Cavaliers and Oklahoma City Thunder. They also have a top-10 offense, defense, and net rating in those 34 games. If we take that sample size, the Lakers would 100 percent be considered a legitimate championship contender. They have the star power, the elite offense, and the elite defense. What many may simply not be willing to admit is that the Lakers may very well be more of that team after December 15 than they were before then.
In fact, for more of the season, the Lakers have been an elite team than the mediocre one that started the season. Add in the fact that they also just acquired Luka Doncic, and there's no reason why the Lakers should be considered a contender with how they've played over the last three months of the season.