The Thunder dropping to the 3 seed is possible considering only a game separates them from the Nuggets and 2 games from the TWolves. If this is how the final standings were to shake out. I’d say the Lakers are heading to the WCF again. We would dominate the Thunder and the Mavs I think would actually be a tough series for Minnesota since Gobert is a lot less useful in that matchup. Luka and Kyrie can kill them from the perimeter if they have to. Regardless I’d like the Lakers chances vs the TWolves in the 2nd round and I’d really like our chances vs the Mavs in the 2nd round if they somehow upset Minny. On the other side of the bracket Denver would have to go through KD, Booker, and Beal as well as the Clippers most likely just to make it back to the WCF. KD could go otherworldly and beat them or the Clippers could also get the upset.
TLDR: This is the easiest path for the Lakers in my opinion to get back to the WCF. 🙏💜💛
by thrwaway23456nbayb
41 Comments
Hot take: I think the Clippers would be easier than the Wolves, IF we’re fully healthy.
Unlike previous seasons, we have numerous tall forwards to put on Kawhi and PG (Vando, Cam, Rui), and they aren’t as explosive or athletic as the Wolves.
I Love this bracket. I Truly hope this is how it plays out. Leave Den tf alone and hope KD goes fully KD on em
Yup that’s perfect. Hardest road for nuggets and easiest for us. It looks fairly likely too tho obviously still a lot of games left a lot can happen.
People don’t realize it yet, but if Beal is back and 100% by the playoffs and they face Denver he will absolutely murder the Nuggets. Booker is great but they’ll have KCP on him, and KD will likely draw the AG matchup, leaving Murray on Beal, and with Jokic on the back line and no way to safely help from the perimeter due to the Suns’ shooting, Beal will cook them in every PnR.
As weird as it is, we should be praying the Suns stay healthy, or at least are healthy come playoff time, so they can take out the Nuggets. After them the only teams I see beating the Nuggets are the Kings and Warriors for similar reasons to the Suns.
Great i dont want warriors to sniff the playoffs ever again
6 would require us showing a level of consistency we haven’t shown all season and winning like 75-80% of our remaining games. I would absolutely love that but we would be genuinely shocked if we pulled it off.
It is highly unlikely we get the 6th seed fam. I think targeting the 7th seed is most realistic at this point.
To make it more realistic to some, you could even swap us with the Mavs and swap OKC with Minnesota since Mavs are currently ahead of us and OKC is ahead of Minny. It would result in the same bracket. OKC at 2 and Lakers at 7 while Minnesota is at 3 and Mavs are at 6. Either way it’s the best possible bracket for us imo.
Honestly, I want the Lakers to face Denver one way or the other, maybe another WCF matchup because I believe they will beat them this time. As long as everyone is healthy, Lakers will beat Denver. I can just imagine the motivation the Lakers will have when they face them again in the playoffs, it will be through the roof.
In my opinion, there’s no team in the league we can’t beat except the Nuggets. So I would rather face them in the first round to get it out of the way, if we win, great, if we lose well, at least it was the first round and bron and ad now have a longer summer.
Anyone but the Nuggets I see 😂 save the WCF rematch
I highly doubt we’re able to climb all the way up to 6, but I definitely agree that the Wolves/Thunder part of the bracket is where we want to be!
The only team I’m truly afraid of is Nuggets. The later we have to play them the better
Doubt this happens. Wolves will be dropping down to at least 4th.
Clippers will be at 2nd or third.
As long as we don’t play Denver, any bracket is good 😅
Swap Pelicans with Wolves and you’ve got a deal🤝
So realistically in this bracket are we hoping to play the suns in wcf?
That’s too perfect lol
Just avoid the nuggets until WCF again and stay healthy
Delusion😂😂😂
Would it be lunacy to say our best shot at a finals would be taking out Nuggets first round? We won’t have to play 2 series and get heart broken in the western conference finals.
I wish. I think 7th seed is the highest we can realistically reach even if we are only 2 games behind the 6th seed.
Easiest path but will still be difficult. You have to respect your opponents.
This is about the lakers only chance.
The west and the title goes through Denver for sure
6 might just be stretching it a bit too far for us.
Just need literally any team to knock off Denver. I feel confident with any other opponent
Let’s face Denver first. There’s more rest between games in the first round.
As long as we finish 7th or 8th, make the play-in game, and get into the 7th seed, all while Nuggets finish 1st, we good. We’ll avoid their bracket. A lot of ifs there, though.
are we going to get the 6th seed tho? 😭
That’s a pretty nice bracket but even better seeding for me would be Wolves on the other bracket. I feel Wolves got the best shot of beating Denver so let them fight it out.
So first we as the #8 seed would be up against OKC #1 (OKC is #1 right now so this can easily happen). Then we’d face winner of Clips/Pelicans. Pelicans would be a relatively easy 2nd round opponent while Clips basically miss out on homecourt advantage, both good options. Then we’d face winner of Denver/Wolves with hopefully the Wolves winning.
I highly doubt the Thunder fall to the three seed, but possibly the two seed behind Denver. And it’s more likely Lakers are the 7 seed than 6 seed. Ironically the bracket would still play out very similar to what you outlined were this to happen.
The one that you put up rn. The scariest two teams imo are the clippers and nuggets. Avoiding them for the longest time is ideal.
This is ideal. It can give us more time to get Vando healthy
Unpopular opinion, but assuming we’re healthy to start playoffs, this team is better off playing Nuggets as early as possible. If Lakers played Nuggets in round 1 last year, they would have had a better shot.
Anyway I would say don’t pay attention to seeding and try to get highest seed possible. Winning games is the best way to increase chances of winning a championship.
I would prefer the opposite side of the bracket contain all the teams that Denver have struggled with – teams with athletic top tier guards – Clippers, Sac, OKC.
Yes, I’m hoping that the Nuggets get upset somehow, because I honestly don’t think we’re capable of beating them 4 games out of 7.
This is the same as in the bubble with the Clippers getting upset by the Nuggets, but we had the right tools to deal with Jokic then, but we don’t now.
Not truly ideal but do love it. Minnesota can beat Denver because of match ups. And the lakers can beat Minnesota. But if we got that bracket it would be amazing
We shouldn’t hope for the easiest path, we should hope the team plays well. Also I’ve gotta say this bracket is very well made, I’m impressed by the thoughtfulness my dude! 😀
Wolves are very weak without KAT and I am not sure he will be the same even if he does come back. I think they are our ideal matchup we could probably sweep.
Then the clips beat the nuggets
Timberwolves will drop further without KAT
This looks promising.