With there being only a month remaining in the regular season, it doesn't feel too early anymore to discuss the NBA playoff picture. The Western Conference, as always, is very competitive, with there being a few teams being bunched up in the middle seeds behind the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs — with the Los Angeles Lakers jockeying for position against three other high-level teams in the Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets, and Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Lakers have dealt with a plethora of injury woes, and there have been stretches this season where they have not looked like a contending team whatsoever. Be that as it may, at the time of writing, the Lakers own a 40-25 record, which has them in fourth place in the West standings.
Last season, it looked like the Lakers had a manageable first-round matchup against the Timberwolves. Minnesota ended up swallowing them whole on the glass. There is no such thing as an easy matchup in the West, but some likely matchups might be easier than others.
To that end, this is the first-round matchup the Lakers would want to avoid at all costs.
The Lakers say no to another playoff clash vs. Nuggets
The four aforementioned teams jockeying for position in the West have been playing musical chairs, which means that every win and every loss has them shuffling their position in the standings. Realistically, the Lakers can face any of those three teams in the first round of the playoffs, with the Phoenix Suns remaining within striking distance of those four teams — so they loom as a potential first-round matchup as well.
But among those teams, the Lakers would want to avoid a first-round matchup against Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets for obvious reasons.
The Nuggets faced the Lakers in the 2023 and 2024 NBA playoffs and the Purple and Gold couldn't hold a candle to Denver. They were keeping games close, but the story was all-familiar; Jokic would take over and hit ridiculous shots, and Jamal Murray would make things worse by hitting clutch shots of his own to keep the Lakers at bay.
It's hard to think that anything would be drastically different even with Doncic on the roster. Doncic gives the Lakers a higher offensive floor and ceiling than they had when Anthony Davis was on the team, but their defense is now even more hapless against Jokic without the Brow.
This was very evident in their most recent clash; the Lakers had to resort to gimmicky defensive coverages just to slow down Jokic, and it's hard to see that working in a playoff setting where the Nuggets can gameplan for Marcus Smart coverages as well as the Rui Hachimura matchup.
That series will be an offensive bloodbath, but suffice to say, the Nuggets have the more explosive offense and the better superstar in Jokic. Deandre Ayton is not the answer, and he never was. The Lakers could perhaps at least win one or two games in this playoff matchup, but over a seven-game series, their lack of size and defensive woes on the perimeter will make it impossible to win four against Denver.
Their aggressive defense against Jokic would force a ton of rotations from the Lakers defense, and it doesn't seem to be the best idea at all to have a team with a backcourt of Doncic and Reaves have to cover a ton of ground on that end of the floor.
As for the other matchups, the Lakers can definitely handle the Rockets and Timberwolves, and they have a talent advantage over the Suns if it comes to that.
Houston's offense can be a clogged toilet at times, as they have to labor to get open shots, which would work in the Lakers' favor, as they have two explosive scoring guards in Doncic and Reaves. Houston doesn't have nearly as many offensive weapons as Denver does, which would shorten rotations for LA, making life easier.
They have had the Timberwolves' number this season; they swept the season series and have learned a lot from the embarrassing first-round exit they suffered at their hands last season. Ayton has been disappointing for stretches this season, but he has helped a lot with the Timberwolves matchup where they made Rudy Gobert look dominant last year.
The Suns may be a tricky matchup considering how Dillon Brooks makes life miserable for LeBron James. Be that as it may, Doncic has overcome Devin Booker and the Suns in the past, and having the best player on the floor should work out in the Lakers' favor in that matchup.
In conclusion, the Nuggets are looking like the worst possible matchup for the Lakers, and LA has to be begging that the West standings turn out kindly in their favor in a month's time.
