Following the Los Angeles Lakers’ 142-130 win against the Chicago Bulls on Thursday amid Luka Doncic’s 51-point outburst, the Lakers found themselves climbing the Western Conference standings all the way up to the No. 3 seed. There is still about one month of the regular season left with a few major games coming up, and it would behoove the Lakers to stay in the third seed in the West standings for the NBA playoffs, as per Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
“I’m looking at a way for the Lakers to have a playoff run. It’s going to be to get that three,” Windhorst said. “No. 1, you have home court in the first round. They had home court in the first round last year and lost. You still have to play good basketball. . . And you get on the same side of the bracket probably as the Spurs.
“If you’re choosing to be on the side of the Spurs or the Thunder, you’re probably going to pick the Spurs because of their inexperience overall. They’re a little bit not as deep as the Thunder. . .The next three games, huge for the Lakers. Home against the Nuggets. . .And then they leave on a six-game road trip. The first two games of that trip, in Houston. Teams all around them wanting to beat them, we’re gonna know a lot about the Lakers after the next 10 days.”
As of right now, the West standings from No. 3 to No. 7 are all separated by only two games. Obviously the Spurs are the preferable matchup in the NBA playoffs for the Lakers over the Thunder. But last season, JJ Redick cautioned against trying to manipulate the seedings for a favorable playoff series.
The Lakers have 16 games left in the regular season, with four of those games against teams they are battling with for playoff positioning in the Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets and Phoenix Suns. Windhorst is right in that the upcoming stretch will say a lot about the Lakers heading into the West playoff picture.
