The Lakers are too scary! Because the Lakers with healthy Zhan Mei are too strong, the ceiling is very high, at least the strength of the Western Conference Finals, especially this season, James's performance has not weakened at all.
Therefore, no team in the playoffs is willing to meet the Lakers, even the defending champion Nuggets are not willing to meet the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs, so the strong teams in the West are hiding from the Lakers! And if you take a careful look at the western rankings, you will also find a little tired.
The Lakers are now ninth in the West and in the play-in position, but the Lakers' journey ahead will be very difficult. The Lakers' next opponents are the Nuggets, the Thunder, the Kings, the Bucks, the Timberwolves, the Kings are all strong teams, the Lakers are basically losing more and winning less, and the Warriors behind the Lakers have a relatively easy schedule, basically as long as the Lakers lose one game, then the Warriors will basically overtake the Lakers and rank ninth in the West, then it can basically be determined that the Lakers are at the end of the season, basically ranked tenth in the West, the last position in the play-offs, then into the play-offs, the Lakers have a good chance of winning the play-offs, Entering the playoffs with the eighth place in the West, then according to the distribution of playoff opponents, the first in the West against the eighth in the West, basically not surprisingly, the eighth in the West should be the Lakers, then the first in the West is likely to be the Timberwolves. Why?
Let's talk about the Thunder team, which ranks second in the West, and lost to the Spurs unexpectedly today, if it is a narrow victory, forget it, the key is that this is a big defeat, from the perspective of ranking strength, as long as the Thunder plays seriously, in the face of the Spurs who are at the bottom of the West, even if they lose, it will not be ugly, but the Thunder lost the game with a huge difference of 14 points, which is a big surprise, because before the game with the Spurs, the Thunder and the Timberwolves are both 17 losses, as long as they do not lose the game, the Thunder team is likely to rank first in the West. The Thunder suffered an unexpected defeat to the Spurs, sending a signal that they don't want to compete for the first place in the West.
Let's talk about the Nuggets, you must know that just before the All-Star break, they have been hovering between the first in the West and the fourth in the West, and the Nuggets give people the feeling that they don't want to top the first place in the West, it is obvious from the recent game process, among them, Jokic chose to rest and lose the game, and in the game against the Kings, as long as the Nuggets win, they can successfully reach the top of the West, but the Nuggets lost the game, and it was a 29-point defeat, thus missing the first place in the West, And what is even more surprising is that the Nuggets also lost the next two games one after another, especially against the Bucks, and the Nuggets' Murray felt like he was sending warmth to Rivers Sr., which caused the Nuggets to stay away from the first place in the West. So far, it seems that they want to compete with the Clippers for the fourth position in the West, after all, the fourth place in the West and the fifth place in the West are basically broken, and the Nuggets and the Clippers are only one game apart.
The last is the Clippers, the Clippers can be said to be the team with the most obvious control of all teams, although the Clippers have been unstoppable all the way to the north, but the Clippers were also passively promoted when they were ranked first in the West, because the top four in the West were the same as 16 losses, and the Clippers saw that it was wrong, so they immediately began to lose the game, and lost five games in the last eight games. Especially in the last game against the Lakers, it was even more obvious that the Lakers were being released, because the two cores of the team were absent, one was George and the other was Zubac, and a casual comeback was enough for the Lakers to drink a pot, George has an injury and has nothing to say, so what's wrong with Zubac? Obviously, the Clippers know the weak team of the Lakers, afraid of tough centers, if Zubac is on the field, the Lakers inside line will definitely burst, not that Davis can't do it as a center, but because in the face of those powerful centers, Davis looks a little thin and very difficult to defend, just like facing Jokic, in the face of a large tonnage, Davis can't resist at all, which is why Davis doesn't like to play center, and in the last game against the Suns, he was blown up by Nurkic inside, Grab as many as 22 rebounds. So in the face of a strong center, the Lakers basically lost more and won less, which is why the Clippers did not let Zubac play. Even so, the Lakers fell behind by a large score in the first three quarters, but fortunately, with James' outburst, they won the game with difficulty. However, even if they are sure to face the Lakers, their consumption must be huge after a series, so they don't want to meet the Lakers in the first round, so they choose to stay away from the first place in the West!
Finally, let's look forward to the Lakers vs. Nuggets game at 9:30 this Sunday morning! James has 9 points left and is about to reach a unique all-time record of 40,000 points! It's a pleasure for all of you to be a witness to James' all-time record!