How Do The Lakers Match Up Against The West’s Top 4?
Let’s get real.
At 33-28, your ninth-seeded Los Angeles Lakers appear destined for a ceiling in the bottom half of the Western Conference standings by the end of the 2023-24 season.
The Purple and Gold have been dogged by role player injuries of late, which has most hurt their previously impressive defense.
Assuming that at last small forward Cam Reddish (who just returned on Tuesday) and bigs Christian Wood and Jarred Vanderbilt (who both remain out) return to form (I’ll believe Gabe Vincent can be healthy and contribute consistently to LA when I see it), how can we expect this club to square off against the best in the West, the probable four best teams who would theoretically be waiting for the Lakers (assuming the Lakers can even escape the play-in tournament)?
It's time to take an inventory.
1. Minnesota Timberwolves (42-17)
The Lakers’ supposed big edge in the West, their ample size up front (and really, they’re pretty big at every position), would essentially be mitigated by the Minnesota Timberwolves, who boast a massive front court (they’re starting two seven-foot-plus centers in Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert, and have a starter-caliber big backing them up in Naz Reid), and have some very solid two-way wings in All-Star shooting guard Anthony Edwards and small forward Jaden McDaniels. Much as he was alongside Gobert in Utah, Conley was the engine that drove and controlled the club, many of whose components don’t get along with each other off the court, and those tensions have occasionally bubbled over into games.
Minnesota owns a 2-0 record against Los Angeles this season, though both those victories were by seven points or fewer. The Timberwolves won by an average margin of 4.5 points.
2. Oklahoma City Thunder (41-18)
The Lakers do enjoy a major size advantage over the young Thunder, who beyond 7’ rookie center Chet Holmgren and reserve big Bismack Biyombo are fairly small up front. LA is 2-1 against the Thunder this year to date. Oklahoma City has yet to make the playoffs with this current core, and it’s conceivable to think that the club’s youth and relative inexperience could play into the Lakers’ favor.
3. Denver Nuggets (41-19)
I’ve seen no evidence to suggest that the Lakers can truly handle Denver, who as you’ll recall vanquished LA 4-0 in their Western Conference Finals series last spring. Then again, I’ve seen very little evidence to suggest any team in the West, outside of maybe Minnesota, that matches up particularly well against the Nuggets.
4. LA Clippers (37-20)
For whatever reason, the Lakers continued to own the Clippers this season even after they traded for James Harden and emerged as a (semi) legit contender in the conference. The Lakers won their season series convincingly, 3-1, though both teams were missing major pieces during most of their encounters.
To be fair, the Clips probably would be missing major pieces in the postseeason anyway, as I for one am unconvinced that All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard can survive a playoff series once the games start being played every other day in the second round. Of course, given how these seedings could shake out, the two LA squads (who haven’t met in a playoff series since the Anthony Davis/LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard/Paul George star tandems were configured in 2019) might meet sooner than that.
