Lakers standing in Western Conf. Discussion

Figured we could use a thread like this to discuss the Lakers playoff position in the West. With how competitive the West is it'll get really interesting to see how the playoff seeds pan out near the end of the season.

Currently the Lakers are 15-11 and are tied for the 5th seed with Dallas.

As long as they finish top 8 they will be fine.

I'd like to be top 4 going into the ASB. It's pretty tight right around where we are now.

Conference full of above average/good teams ... Thunder is dominating but they don't play that type of playoff championship B-Ball imo ... we would go to the Finals with decent players at the PG and SF positions and a scorer from the bench ... the league isn't strong these days , that's why not taken advantage of it is even more frustrating

if the Clippers dont make anymore additions I can honestly see us leaping them and finishing 2nd in the West with the current roster we have.

We're tied for 4th right now with Houston, Dallas, and Denver. We're a game and a half back from the Clippers for 3rd.

The Rock wrote:if the Clippers dont make anymore additions I can honestly see us leaping them and finishing 2nd in the West with the current roster we have.

It's possible but would be a lot easier if some positive changes are made to this team. There's also the Spurs who are playing great basketball even without Manu.

After losing to the Knicks the Lakers are tied for 8th place in the west along with Denver & Portland.

XXIV wrote:After losing to the Knicks the Lakers are tied for 8th place in the west along with Denver & Portland.

Which is about where we should end up, notwithstanding a trade. That will position us for a 1st round exit.

The West is still pretty tightly packed and the Lakers are realistically just one hot streak away from jumping up to 3rd or so, but given their massive inconsistencies and how many nights they just struggle so badly to even score the ball, I have a hard time seeing that happen. I don't think they will miss the playoffs(barring some big injury) but I wouldn't be too surprised if they finish 7th or 8th when the dust settles.

I just don't want to face the Clippers in the first round, getting a little tired of the whole "handing the keys to the city" bandwagoning going on and I don't have much confidence that the Lakers, in their present state, can be _anyone_ in a 7-game series.

The Lakers are looking like an older team playing a compressed schedule. No surprise that other older teams are playing the same way. I just wish Brown would bite the bullet and give the vets some more rest. But I understand they are still working on adding things on offense and defense. If they are clicking after the all star game then they will be fine.

It's amazing how wide open the West is. As poorly as we've played we're only a game out of 4th and 2.5 games out of 2nd.

I would like for us to have a winning road record by the end of the season. 4-10 is pathetic.

And at least put up a fight against Miami, Chicago, and OKC, too. We really need to make a major trade if we want any hope of contending.

dj vitus wrote:I would like for us to have a winning road record by the end of the season. 4-10 is pathetic.

And at least put up a fight against Miami, Chicago, and OKC, too. We really need to make a major trade if we want any hope of contending.

For us to have a winning road record, we'd need to go 13-6 on the road... :/

thkthebest wrote:

dj vitus wrote:I would like for us to have a winning road record by the end of the season. 4-10 is pathetic.

And at least put up a fight against Miami, Chicago, and OKC, too. We really need to make a major trade if we want any hope of contending.

For us to have a winning road record, we'd need to go 13-6 on the road... :/

Only front office moves could save us right now.

scheven wrote:

thkthebest wrote:

dj vitus wrote:I would like for us to have a winning road record by the end of the season. 4-10 is pathetic.

And at least put up a fight against Miami, Chicago, and OKC, too. We really need to make a major trade if we want any hope of contending.

For us to have a winning road record, we'd need to go 13-6 on the road... :/

Only front office moves could save us right now.

I keep forgetting we only have 66 (?) games this season; not much time at all to right this ship.

venturalakersfan wrote:As long as they finish top 8 they will be fine.

how optimistic is this guy

Is it just me or is the Western conference really weak this year? The Eastern conference isn't that much better. The only two teams you really need to be concerned with are the Thunder and Heat. Neither of those two teams has a decent head coach, so they are beatable too.

As bad as Mike Brown is, he might actually have a shot by default. I can't think of a year where the NBA was this weak.

It seems like we do better when we don't play. We're now 7th in the West.

tttppp wrote:Is it just me or is the Western conference really weak this year? The Eastern conference isn't that much better. The only two teams you really need to be concerned with are the Thunder and Heat. Neither of those two teams has a decent head coach, so they are beatable too.

As bad as Mike Brown is, he might actually have a shot by default. I can't think of a year where the NBA was this weak.

Lockout season so all the team's kind of suck this year. Chicago and Miami seem to be the only teams that have a shot at the title. I think Thunder will get nowhere if all they're going to do is iso every possession.

thkthebest wrote:Lockout season so all the team's kind of suck this year. Chicago and Miami seem to be the only teams that have a shot at the title. I think Thunder will get nowhere if all they're going to do is iso every possession.

Exactly this.
We might have a shot, but we need some trades.

thkthebest wrote:

tttppp wrote:Is it just me or is the Western conference really weak this year? The Eastern conference isn't that much better. The only two teams you really need to be concerned with are the Thunder and Heat. Neither of those two teams has a decent head coach, so they are beatable too.

As bad as Mike Brown is, he might actually have a shot by default. I can't think of a year where the NBA was this weak.

Lockout season so all the team's kind of suck this year. Chicago and Miami seem to be the only teams that have a shot at the title. I think Thunder will get nowhere if all they're going to do is iso every possession.

I'm not impressed with Chicago either. Any normal year teams like the Bulls and Lakers wouldn't even be contenders.

Chicago has the best record in the league with a lot of (minor) injuries and has played the most road games in the league (19) ... that's pretty impressive even if you are playing in the East

Rose has missed 6 games , Deng 7, Hamilton 18, Watson 10, Gibson 3

Right now, the Lakers are 1.5 games from either moving all the way up to 4th in the West or moving all the way down to 11th. There is no room for losing streaks this year &, with the way the Lakers have been playing on the road this year, I don't see us beating too many teams in the Playoffs without having HCA. Maybe the Lakers will Man up & somehow pull off HCA in the first round, but that's probably about it.

After the win over the Raptors the Lakers are tied for 5th place along with Houston and Denver. Clippers and Dallas are playing tonight and a loss for either team will help us move up on the playoff seeding.