Lakers news: LA player makes bold statement about Lakers postseason

The Los Angeles Lakers finished the regular season with a win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday. Still, the win slotted them into the postseason...

The Los Angeles Lakers finished the regular season with a win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday. Still, the win slotted them into the postseason with the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference. It was a year filled with injuries for the Lakers, including to their two superstars in LeBron James and Anthony. Both missed significant time as the Lakers sputtered down the stretch run of the season. Now they get ready for the play-in tournament and one Lakers player spoke up about how historic this run could be.

Jared Dudley asked by @mcten about the challenge the Lakers face as a 7-seed trying to repeat as champions: “It will be the hardest challenge any team has ever had in NBA history.”

— Bill Oram (@billoram) May 17, 2021

It's quite the proclamation bu Jared Dudley, who sees this in his eyes as the hardest challenge any team will have ever faced. That's of course, if the Lakers are able to make it through the gauntlet of this postseason and win back-to-back NBA championships.

There is one present item and one past item that work in Dudley's favor for his argument.

First, the lowest seed to ever win an NBA Finals was the 1994-95 Houston Rockets who won it as the No. 6 seed. If the Lakers were to do it this year as the No. 7 seed, it would mark the new lowest seeded team in NBA history to win the title.

Secondly, this is the first year of the play-in tournament. The Lakers will be apart of that and draw Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors right out of the gate. There's no precedent set in place yet for the play-in tournament and for teams in it, it's another lair and another obstacle standing between your squad and the championship.

Despite all of this, LeBron James may have already been apart of the biggest challenge overcome in NBA history. It was in fact his Cleveland Cavaliers team that trailed the 73-9 Golden State Warriors 3-1 in the 2016 NBA Finals before ripping off three straight to defeat the team that posted the best record in a season in NBA history.

Dudley is right, it won't be easy for the Lakers to repeat this time around given all the surrounding circumstances. Where it would rank in history in terms of difficulty, that's for everyone to put up for discussion.