Lakers standing in Western Conf. Discussion

Relying on Clipper losses is smart...history says you end up winning the bet 10 out of 10 times

Does it matter what is the Laker seed? If they can't beat the dominant teams now, it's not likely they will be able to dominate in the playoffs, likely an early exit in first round...

Uncle_Meat wrote:Does it matter what is the Laker seed? If they can't beat the dominant teams now, it's not likely they will be able to dominate in the playoffs, likely an early exit in first round...

I think they have a good chance at getting past the first round, even if Memphis is the opponent. But I don't see them getting past the 2nd round. I don't see how they can beat SA or OKC. Those teams are too talented offensively for the Lakers to beat.

Neither plays great playoff D. But they won't need to against the Lakers offense. Just wait around long enough for the Lakers to go into that stretch of minutes where they can't score and pull away at that point.

During the offseason, the front office needs to find scorers. Especially when it comes to the bench. Its the only way they can win another championship in Kobe's era.

Uncle_Meat wrote:Does it matter what is the Laker seed?

No, not really. We either can beat a team like OKC or we can't. 2nd round, the WCF, it doesn't matter. If we want to win it all, we have to go through the best team in the West, whether it's the OKC or the SAS. And if we lose, it really doesn't matter when we lose.

karacha wrote:

Uncle_Meat wrote:Does it matter what is the Laker seed?

No, not really. We either can beat a team like OKC or we can't.

those would be the options lol.

I agree, Karacha. We'll play SA or OKC in the 2nd round, and either is going to be tough.

The Rock wrote:Either way we're gonna have to win at least 3 series on the road. Something which Shaq/Kobe and Kobe/Gasol teams never did lol...

EDIT nvm. 2002 title team beat the Spurs and Kings as the road team.

But yea we might end up playing 3 series on the road to win a title.

2010 Celtics got really close to winning 3 series on the road en route to a championship until they ran into us in a tough game 7 on the road....

Like others have said, BOTH SAS and OKC are going to be tough, so at this point, I don't care who we get in the 2nd round. We need to BEAT OKC tomorrow to avoid slipping to 4th and matching up witha TOUGH memphis squad. What's crazy is, if Lakers lose their last 2 games of the season, and Clippers also lose 2 of their last 3 games, and Memphis wins out, then Lakers and Clippers will face each other in the first round at the 4/5 match up, and Memphis will be the 3rd seed.

Big game for us. If we lose, I think we "concede" the final game, rest our starters, and lose the 3-seed.

My heart says we can win it all, but my mind says we don't make it past the 2nd round if we face OKC or SAS as a road team. So my heart and mind have come to an agreement....do whatever you can to get Dallas in the 1st round cause we owe them.

Get 'er dun!

Vasashi17 wrote:So my heart and mind have come to an agreement....do whatever you can to get Dallas in the 1st round cause we owe them.

I have to agree with this. I mean... we're a good team. But we still have some holes to fill, our training camp was non-existent; we changed the PG in the middle of the season; we started the season with a new coach, who has a totally different system. Some players, like Ron and Matt took some time to really show up in perfect game shape, due to various factors.

What I am trying to say is that we have a good team, but this is probably not our year. Which is OK. You can't win all the time, but you can stay competitive. At least we could try to beat Dallas.

I agree: unless something happens all of a sudden we're out in the second round.
Has Kobe saved up something special?
Is this Bynum's year?
Can the role players play to their full potential?

I don't see it happening.

Not acceptable. Finals or nothing. There is no in-between. This is the Lakers! Not the other franchises.

trodgers wrote:I agree: unless something happens all of a sudden we're out in the second round.
Has Kobe saved up something special?
Is this Bynum's year?
Can the role players play to their full potential?

I don't see it happening.

Agreed. Some years you just know it's not your year....this is one of those years.

Phil XI wrote:Not acceptable. Finals or nothing. There is no in-between. This is the Lakers! Not the other franchises.

Then it's probably going to be 'nothing'. Unfortunately.

Phil XI wrote:Not acceptable. Finals or nothing. There is no in-between. This is the Lakers! Not the other franchises.

Well I think we all would consider the season a failure if we didn't get all the way to the finals but you gotta be a little realistic.

trodgers wrote:Big game for us. If we lose, I think we "concede" the final game, rest our starters, and lose the 3-seed.

The thing is we can lose today and still be OK. If the Clippers lose one more game and we take care of the Kings we'll still get the 3rd seed.

Hey guys, long time lurker first time poster here!

As it has been said in this thread and others, today's game is huge. The Lakers still control their own destiny in regards to the 3rd seed, but a lot can still happen.

The worst case scenario for the Lakers is that they lose these next 2 games, the Clips win at least 2 out of 3 and Memphis wins out. That would put us at the 5th seed with LAC and the Grizz being the 3rd and 4th seeds respectively.

That would result in the Lakers having to open the playoffs IN Memphis.

If the Lakers do collapse, we should root for the scenario that FabFourLakers mentioned a few posts back: Clippers lose 2 games and Memphis wins out, thus resulting in a Lakers/Clippers series.

Of course, the Lakers can make things easier for themselves if they win today. There's only 5 days left in this season, so we'll see what happens.

Play some damn defense! Or it's going to be a very short ride in the playoffs.

Thought Mike Brown was a good defensive coach, but they're still having massive breakdowns with so few games left in the season. That is troubling...

On the bright side, they have 3 days off between OKC and the last game against Sacramento. Holy crap when was the last time they had 3 days between games when it wasn't the All-Star break? Well they need to use that time to go over their defenses because both of their potential opponents in the first round are pick'n'roll teams.

Doc Brown wrote:I'm not worried about seeding anymore. I'm more worried about our guys coming together and playing some damn defense. Everyone playing defense not just 1 person and blame the others, everyone locking their guy down and playing some team defense.

If we don't do that, it's not going to matter who we play because we will get bounced way before sniffing the championship.

They don't have the luxury of saying the switch will be turned on come playoff time, that ship sailed last year.

Meh it's too late for that IMO. This team is finished in the second round regardless (if they even get there). If they were going to make a push and show that they're capable of playing elite bball it should have happened earlier. I don't expect them to suddenly be locking down opponents and getting awesome bench production in the playoffs.

Looks like Clippers might lose tonight. If the Clippers lose then Mike Brown can sit out all the stars for the game in Sacramento.

LakerFanIam wrote:

scissors wrote:Looks like Clippers might lose tonight. If the Clippers lose then Mike Brown can sit out all the stars for the game in Sacramento.

Too early..

LOL. Yeah I just realized that. Damn it they caught up.

thought we had it locked up there lol, what a meltdown by NO