Do Or Die For The Lakeshow – What’s It Going To Be?

The Lakers are 1-6 over their last 7 games and currently the No. 7 seed in the West. The lowest-seeded champ in modern NBA history was No. 6 Houston in 1995. No. 7 seeds don’t win it all in the 16-team format. With 8 games still to go and 3 teams tied for the same place, things could get really interesting. So what are the scenarios available? And what’s the best thing the Lakers can do right now? Let’s take a closer look together. Do Or Die For The Lakeshow – What’s It Going To Be? It’s worth to mention that teams ranked 7-10 will participate in the “Play In” tournament after the regular season (May 18-21) to secure the final two spots in the NBA playoffs for each conference.

Bumpy Road

The Lakers were all over the place during the past couple of weeks, as the return of Lebron James was highly anticipated. However, so far, nothing is going according to plan for the defending champs. After Sacramento spoiled the King’s return by beating LA in Staples on Sunday, the champs dropped yet another highly important game against a shorthanded Raptors squad tonight. What was one of their strongest attributes, defense, was completely missing as they allowed Lowry and Siakam to take over.

In addition, The Lakers say LeBron James, who checked out with nearly seven minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, did not return against Toronto because of a sore right ankle. This is LeBron’s 2nd game back after missing 20 straight games, the longest injured period of his career. On the other hand, Anthony Davis played 33 minutes tonight, which is closer to his typical load. Of course he’s nowhere near his level before the injury, but he remains hopeful he can get back to his old self and help the team with the crucial final push. The Lakers were also without Dennis Schroder tonight, because of the league’s safety protocols. So are these injuries and absences a reason the Lakers can use for their recent slump? Are they just “bored” with these regular games and will change once it gets more serious? Or is it time to ring the crisis bell?

Upcoming Game

Of the Lakers’ final nine games, eight come as part of the four back-to-backs on the schedule to finish the regular season. After the loss tonight, the champs will have to prepare to take on the Nuggets tomorrow, as part of the back-to-backs. While the Lakers have really struggled to find themselves, Denver has won five straight games, and impressively, 9 of 10 since point guard Jamal Murray tore his ACL. Jokic is still playing the best basketball of his career this season, can the Lakers regroup on time as they go against one of the MVPs this season? It all remains to be seen.

One of the Lakers struggles this season, as Kyle Kuzma said, is lacking connection with one another. When the Lakers had LeBron and AD both on the court prior to AD’s injury, they were 17-6. Since they’ve returned together, for two games now, they had a new starting center for both games, and a new rotation piece in Ben McLemore. The addition of Drummond was seen as necessary since all the “contenders” were also doing business. However, it’s frustrating for Gasol who is barely getting minutes to help the team. The time for excuses is running out with the playoffs approaching fast and coach Vogel must get his rotations right. It won’t be easy but the Lakers have the talents needed to do it.

What’s Next For The Champs?

As a reminder, teams ranked 7-10 will participate in the “Play In” tournament after the regular season (May 18-21) to secure the final two spots in the NBA playoffs for each conference. Now this is where things get interesting, with the Lakers, Dallas and Portland all tied in 7th place. In the event of a three-way tie, Head to Head meetings are not considered as tiebreakers. So what does you might ask? Division Titles. Yes, you’ve read it right, division titles are the tiebreakers in that situation. What is even crazier is that, out of these 3 teams, Dallas are the only won who can actually win their division.

With the loss against the Raptors tonight, the Lakers have officially fallen to the No.7 seed, thus the Play-In Tournament. Their next 5 games are against the Nuggets, Clippers, Blazers, Suns, Knicks. All of which are in good form lately and could easily beat this Lakers team. So how would they go from here? The King voiced his thought on the Play In tournament, as he’s not “excited” about it. However, as it looks now, it seems the only way for the Lakers to get through to the playoffs.

Final Say

The Lakers are still not playing with the sense of urgency needed to get through this as a team. That could be a real problem for them. Last thing they need is to be part of a mini tournament, play more minutes and risk more injuries to book their place in the playoffs. With a very tough schedule coming up, the defending champs will have to dig deep and pull something out to get past this stretch. Also, knowing that the competition in the West is somehow regarded as “tougher” than the East, the teams the Lakers could face in the Play In tournament are not to be taken for granted. This is why it’s Do Or Die For The Lakeshow – What’s It Going To Be?

Feel free to voice your concerns if you’re a Laker fan, or just comment your thoughts and opinion if you’re an NBA fan. Looks like the end of this season will get a lot interesting in the coming week.

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