Are Lakers Contenders or Pretenders? Next 7 Games Will Determine Answer

The 33–28 Los Angeles Lakers face a bruising 7-game gauntlet over the next two weeks that will determine whether they’re legitimate championship contenders or simply pretenders who have no realistic chance of winning.

The Lakers’ are likely to be underdogs in every one of the 7-games that start tomorrow night versus the world champion Nuggets and include games against the Thunder, Kings, Bucks, Timberwolves, Kings, and Warriors.
Not only will all 7 games be against elite playoff quality opponents but 6 of them will be against Western Conference teams currently are above the Lakers in the standings. These are games the contending Lakers must win.

Make no mistake. The Lakers will not be able to survive the next two weeks if they play like they did in last night’s lucky overtime win versus the sad and hapless Wizards. They’re currently facing what are 7 ‘must win’ games.
If the Lakers come out with the same clueless and relaxed approach they had last night, we won’t have to wait two weeks to learn the Lakers are mere pretenders who lack the drive and determination to win a championship.

The good news is 6 of the next 7 tough games will be home games at Crypto.Com Arena, including Saturday’s big rematch with the world champion Denver Nuggets. The Lakers are 21–9 at home this season.
With their only road game during the upcoming 7-game gauntlet being vs. the Sacramento Kings, the Los Angeles Lakers will essentially be able to stay in California for the full two weeks needed to play the next 7 games

Let’s take a closer look at where the Lakers are in the Western Conference standings, the schedule for their next 7 games, and what it would take for them to move to a top-6 guaranteed playoff seed or a #7 or #8 play-in seed.

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The Standings

The Los Angeles Lakers are 33–28 and in 9th place in the West. Since they have one more loss than the 10th place Warriors, the Lakers are in serious danger of falling back into 10th place if they lose to Denver on Saturday.

The Lakers problem is that the Timberwolves, Thunder, Nuggets, and Clippers have already locked up the top-4 seeds in the West, leaving just the Suns and Pelicans as the only teams who haven’t locked up a playoff seed.
Since Phoenix and New Orleans both have winning percentages just under .600, any team hoping to take end up as the 5th or 6th seed will likely have to end up winning over 49 games or 60% of their 82-game schedule.

Unfortunately, the Lakers would have to win 17 of their remaining 21 games in order to finish the season with 49 wins and a .600 winning percentage or the Suns or Pelicans would have to fail down the stretch.
That probably eliminates any realistic opportunity by the Lakers to win one of the six guaranteed playoff seeds in the West and likely commits them to having to follow last year’s 1-game play-in path to making the NBA playoffs.

The actual battle the Lakers face will probably be trying to beat out the Warriors and Kings for #7 or #8 place in the West and a chance to play just one play-in game to win the #7 playoff seed in a repeat of last season.
Worst case scenario for the Lakers is fortunately the #9 and #10 play-in spots because the#11 through #15 spots in the West are already too far back to get into the competition for #9 and #10 play-in tournament slots.

Bottom line, the standings make it clear that the Los Angeles Lakers have only a remote chance of winning one of the top-6 seeds in the West but have an excellent chance of winning the #7 seed in the play-in tourney.

The Schedule

The Lakers currently have the 4th toughest schedule remaining in the NBA with many of the team’s toughest games being the among 7-game gauntlet the team embarks upon beginning tomorrow night against the Nuggets.

The only way the Lakers have a shot at winning one of the top-6 seeds in the West is to finish off this 7-game stretch with 5 or 6 dominating victories where LeBron James and Anthony Davis show they’re ready to win it all.
Whether the inconsistent and injury plagued Lakers can suddenly flip the switch and become a dominant team that nobody wants to have to meet in the playoffs is still to be seen. Question is which Lakers team will show up.

Frankly, facing a 7-game gauntlet like the Lakers have to go through over the next two weeks could be the silver lining they need to save their season. This team doesn’t play their best until their backs are up against the wall.
Over the next 7 games, the Lakers will have to bring their A-game just to be able to compete much less win consistently against the toughest possible competition. Lakers will be underdogs in every one of these 7 games.

The good news is we’ve seen what this Lakers team is capable of, we’ve seen what a healthy LeBron James and Anthony Davis can accomplish. The only question is whether this team can pull it together and start winning. There’s no more time for Ham experimenting or for anybody on the Lakers not coming out from the opening tip and giving everything they have to win every single game. The next 7 games will tell us if this team is for real.

The bottom line is the 2024 NBA Championship is as wide-open as it has been in any year in history. In the end, the Lakers still believe LeBron and AD give them a puncher’s chance at winning their 18th NBA championship.