Aloha,
We now officially know that we will be playing the Timberwolves in the first round. Unless there is major upsets in the play in games and beyond, there just isn’t an easy path for any team in the west. It will be interesting to see if the Rockets win their first round series. They are the 2nd seed but I don’t have a lot of faith in them. The Warriors could knock them off if the win their play in.
That said, the seeding is about as favorable as the Lakers could have hoped for. I believe that that the Thunder, Clippers and Nuggets all pose more problems for us than the TWolves and we won’t face any of them until we reach the Western conference finals. Still it’s going to be a grind.
The TWolves posses a big front line that will be a challenge. We won the last game even though Luka wasn’t great but Randle did not play in that one. The good news is we can play Gobert off the court. The bad news is Reid comes in for him and he has given us fits in past games.
I am optimistic about the series. It will be extremely difficult for the TWolves to defend our big three. After having to play himself into shape after the injury and integrate himself into the Lakers system, over the last several games, Luka destroyer of worlds have finally arrived. Just in time for the playoffs.
Ant man will get his. We just have to make it hard on him. But after that we can handle the other threats. Randle can be a problem but Lebron and Rui have strong bodies to stand up to him.
It will come down to, can the TWolves defend our big 3 and somehow not give open looks to Rui, DFS and Gabe. By the way, Gabe must recover that shooting touch he had a few weeks ago. Our bench will get out scored but we have so much firepower that we can over come that.
Like I said, it will be a grind. But I think the Lakers win in 6.
I thought this was the best path for the Lakers. Having said that, this would help them set a rhythm as the playoffs progress.