It’s a shame Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant will miss tonight’s matchup between the teams favored to meet in the NBA Finals but there’s clearly a sense of fairness and karma by having both teams missing a superstar.
But there’s more at stake tonight than just bragging rights between the Nets and Lakers. Tonight we get a first look at a possible answer to the question of whether a third superstar or deep and talented roster is more important. Granted, we’d get a truer answer were AD and KD both playing but tonight’s game still comes down to a contest between the Nets with two superstars and a weak roster vs. the Lakers with one superstar and deep roster.
The outcome of tonight’s game could even impact the decisions of the Lakers and Nets front offices before the trade deadline. The Lakers have long been scheming ways to add a third superstar to James and Davis. Tonight’s game could motivate them to chase a third superstar or stand pat. Meanwhile, the Nets will be looking for ways to bolster their shallow, weak bench after trading away their depth to add third superstar James Harden.
In the end, it’s unlikely the results of tonight’s game will change anything for either team as it’s simply another regular season game and neither team has the necessary trading chips to make dramatic changes to their rosters. The Lakers aren’t going to jettison their invaluable roster depth and talent for a third superstar and the both teams are going to be limited to shopping the buyout markets to upgrade their rosters at this point in time.
But that doesn’t mean tonight’s game is not going to give us a glimpse of how the Lakers and Nets matchup and a preview of the NBA Finals teams. The NBA is a superstar league and the Lakers and Nets are superstar teams. So who should be favored? That Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant are not playing should favor the Lakers as they have the deeper and more talented roster and expose the Nets who have the weaker and more flawed roster.
In addition to having the deeper and more talented bench, two other factors that should favor the Lakers are they are the top ranked defensive team in the league and also have the best superstar on the planet in LeBron James. Finally, while superstars dominate the NBA, championships are still won by teams and the Lakers at this point in time are clearly a ‘better’ team than the Nets, who are still trying to figure out how to play with each other.
Assuming their deeper and more talented roster can execute its ‘Next Man Up’ philosophy, the Lakers should be able to contain the Nets’ Harden and Irving like they consistently did to the Rockets’ Harden and Westbrook.
The Lakers clearly have four distinct advantages over the Nets tonight even though AD and KD will not play:
1. They have the deeper, more talent bench and should be able to adjust for the loss of AD better than the Nets to the loss of KD.
2. They are the better defensive team and should be able to slow down Harden and Irving more easily than the Nets slowing down LeBron.
3. They have LeBron James, the best player on the planet, going against a team that doesn’t play great defense.
4. The Lakers lost their second best player in AD whereas the Nets lost the best player in KD. Advantage Lakers.
Prediction: Lakers 125, Nets 115
As the title to the article implies, the Lakers and Nets represent two divergent philosophies on how to win the championship: two superstars with a great deep roster vs. three superstars with a weak, shallow bench.
Of course, the Lakers ultimate goal is to have three superstars with a great, deep roster. That’s still possible but would require gambling on a third star and paying a boatload of luxury taxes. It’s the ultimate in Lakers Exceptionalism.
What are your predictions for tonight’s game against the Nets?