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Can we play a complete 48 minute game? Because I haven’t seen it happen in over 2 weeks (outside of maybe the HOU game). Yeah, we’ve won some games but some were against teams tanking & resting and very few were what I would call “impressive”. I thought we would come out and blow MIN outta the water early but we ended up in an Apollo Creed vs Rocky Balboa (1st movie…lol) battle for our lives that we were lucky to walk away from. Can’t continue that mindset as the competition ramps up.
How does MEM respond to the injury losses and the off-court mess created by Ja? Do they fold up 1st chance they get or do they fight like a cornered, wounded animal? I thought MIN was on the verge of doing the former but they circled the wagons and emerged with the 8th seed…frankly, it was admirable and unexpected. Gotta see what MEM is made of.
Do we really hold the “experience” advantage? Lebron & AD have the bubble tournament award but that was awhile ago and now we have a large segment of our rotation with only a coupla months under their belts, a 1st time head coach, and 1 mediocre play-in performance. MEM made a deep run last year with basically the same group. Feels like they’re more battle-tested to me…but we’ll see.
MEM backcourt advantage vs LAL frontcourt advantage…which one is bigger? The injuries give us a huge edge down low but Ja, Bane, Tyus Jones (best backup PG in the league), and Kenard (deadeye 3pt sniper) are gonna be hard to contain.
Which team can make the switch to playoff style basketball the quickest? The pace slows down, the refs swallow their whistles, each possession has importance, guys close out on open shots just a lil bit quicker, rotations are tighter, emotions are higher, no easy layups….I love playoff basketball because it’s so different from the regular season. It’s why I tend to discount much of what happened before April…this is just different.
Finally, which team will make the correct adjustments? You can’t keep showing your opponent the same look when you’re playing each other 4,5,6,7 games in a row. The coach who does the best job in this area probably wins the series. Gotta have that 2nd & 3rd gear to go to.
I feel like this is gonna be tight throughout…can’t wait.
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….this game shouldn’t even be close. The Wolves are primed to have their will broken very early on and the Lakers need to put em down early. I’ll be disappointed if this thing is still in doubt after 3 quarters and frankly if we ain’t up by 20 it speaks to the mindset of our team. Wolves missing their 2 best defenders who also woulda been assigned to Lebron & AD (who shouldn’t even need to play 30 minutes). Gotta put these clowns outta their misery and let em get ready for their home game against NO or OKC.
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All these teams we need help from aren’t “tanking”; they’ve earned the luxury of being able to rest their guys by doing the right things during the season & securing their seeding.
Meanwhile, we came out 2-10 with that dogshit roster and stuck with it for most of the season. It put us in a position where everything had to work out perfectly for us to avoid the play-in. Didn’t happen. Now we’ll get little rest and end up with Denver or Memphis in round 1…if the play-in works out. Thanks Rob & Jeanie.
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Reminder:
The Lakers faced 11 teams this season who played the Clippers the night before. The Clippers faced just 4 teams who played the Lakers the night before.
The Lakers had the fewest back to backs in the NBA. The Clippers had the 2nd most back to backs in the NBA.
— Joey Linn (@joeylinn_) April 6, 2023
The Lakers are tied for least back to backs of anyone in NBA this season. Games at beginning of season count as much as ones at end. Spare me blaming schedule.
— Sam Esfandiari (@samesfandiari) April 5, 2023
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from cbssports.com
The Golden State Warriors rallied from a 17-point halftime deficit for a 120-109 victory over the Pelicans on Tuesday, which may have saved their season.
With the win, the Warriors vault back into the No. 6 seed, but they are still tied in the loss column with the No. 7 Timberwolves in what could end up being a complicated tiebreaker scenario with the head-to-head series tied 2-2 and the conference records virtually identical at this juncture.
The same is now true of the Warriors/Pelicans tiebreaker: 2-2 head to head, virtually identical conference records with the Warriors at 27-21 and the Pelicans at 26-22. If the case of a tie between two non-division winners who share the same conference win percentage with an evenly split season series, record against all playoff teams would be the next tiebreaker.
Below is a comprehensive snapshot of where things stand in the Western Conference playoff and play-in races entering play on Wednesday. This post will update daily throughout the remainder of the regular season or until all seeds are clinched.
Reminder on how the play-in tournament works: No. 7 plays No. 8 and No. 9 plays No. 10. The winner of the 7-8 game gets the No. 7 seed, while the loser plays the winner of the 9-10 game for the No. 8 seed.
WESTERN CONFERENCE
1. Denver Nuggets (51-24)
Clinched top-three seed
Projected seed: 1
Current first-round matchup: TBD
Tiebreaker vs. Memphis: Nuggets have clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Sacramento: Season series tied 1-1 with one to play
Tiebreaker vs. Phoenix: Nuggets lead season series 2-0 with two to play2. Memphis Grizzlies (48-27)
Clinched top-three seed
Projected seed: 2
Current first-round matchup: vs. Timberwolves-Pelicans play-in winner
Tiebreaker vs. Denver: Nuggets have clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Sacramento: Kings currently own via conference record
Tiebreaker vs. Phoenix: Grizzlies own via division leader3. Sacramento Kings (45-30)
Projected seed: 3
Current first-round matchup: vs. Warriors
Tiebreaker vs. Denver: Tied 1-1 with one to play
Tiebreaker vs. Memphis: Kings currently own via conference win percentage
Tiebreaker vs. Phoenix: Kings own via division leader
Tiebreaker vs. Golden State: Warriors lead 2-1 with one to play4. Phoenix Suns (40-35)
Projected seed: 4
Current first-round matchup: vs. Clippers
Tiebreaker vs. Memphis: Grizzlies own via division leader
Tiebreaker vs. Sacramento: Kings own via division leader
Tiebreaker vs. Golden State: Suns have clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Timberwolves: Suns lead 2-1 with one to play
Tiebreaker vs. Dallas: Suns currently own via conference win percentage
Tiebreaker vs. Clippers: Suns lead 2-1 with one to play5. Los Angeles Clippers (40-36)
Projected seed: 6
Current first-round matchup: at Suns
Tiebreaker vs. Phoenix: Suns lead 2-1 with one to play
Tiebreaker vs. Golden State: Clippers lead via division win percentage
Tiebreaker vs. Timberwolves: Wolves clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Dallas: Mavericks currently own via conference record
Tiebreaker vs. New Orleans: Pelicans lead 1-0 with two to play
Tiebreaker vs. Utah: Jazz clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Lakers: Clippers clinched6. Golden State Warriors (40-37)
Projected seed: 5
Current first-round matchup: at Kings
Tiebreaker vs. Phoenix: Suns have clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Timberwolves: Wolves currently lead via conference win percentage
Tiebreaker vs. Dallas: Warriors clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Clippers: Clippers lead via division win percentage
Tiebreaker vs. Thunder: Warriors lead 2-1 with one to play
Tiebreaker vs. Lakers: Lakers clinched
Tiebreaker vs. New Orleans: Warriors lead via conference win percentage
Tiebreaker vs. Utah: Warriors clinched
Play-In Tournament7. Minnesota Timberwolves (39-37)
Projected seed: 10
Current first-round matchup: vs. Pelicans (play-in)
Tiebreaker vs. Phoenix: Suns lead 2-1 with one to play
Tiebreaker vs. Golden State: Wolves currently lead via conference win percentage
Tiebreaker vs. Dallas: Wolves clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Clippers: Wolves clinched
Tiebreaker vs. New Orleans: Tied 1-1 with one to play
Tiebreaker vs. Utah: Wolves currently own via division record
Tiebreaker vs. Lakers: Wolves clinched8. New Orleans Pelicans (38-38)
Projected seed: Lottery
Current first-round matchup: at Timberwolves (play-in)
Tiebreaker vs. Golden State: Warriors lead via conference win percentage
Tiebreaker vs. Timberwolves: Tied 1-1 with one to play
Tiebreaker vs. Dallas: Mavericks lead 2-1 with one to play
Tiebreaker vs. Utah: Jazz clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Lakers: Lakers clinched
Tiebreaker vs. OKC: Pelicans clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Portland: Pelicans clinched9. Los Angeles Lakers (37-38)
Projected seed: 10
Current first-round matchup: vs. Thunder (play-in)
Tiebreaker vs. Clippers: Clippers clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Warriors: Lakers clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Timberwolves: Wolves clinched
Tiebreaker vs. New Orleans: Lakers clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Utah: Jazz lead 2-0 with two to play
Tiebreaker vs. OKC: Lakers clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Portland: Blazers currently own via conference win percentage10. Oklahoma City Thunder (37-39)
Projected seed: 9
Current first-round matchup: at Lakers (play-in)
Tiebreaker vs. Warriors: Golden State leads 2-1 with one to play
Tiebreaker vs. Dallas: OKC clinched
Tiebreaker vs. New Orleans: Pelicans clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Utah: OKC leads 2-1 with one to play
Tiebreaker vs. Lakers: Lakers clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Portland: OKC clinched
Outside Looking In11. Dallas Mavericks (37-39)
Projected seed: 8
Tiebreaker vs. Oklahoma City: OKC clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Phoenix: Suns owns via conference win percentage
Tiebreaker vs. Golden State: Warriors clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Timberwolves: Wolves clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Clippers: Dallas currently owns via conference record
Tiebreaker vs. New Orleans: Dallas leads 2-1 with one to play
Tiebreaker vs. Utah: Dallas leads 2-1 with one to play
Tiebreaker vs. Lakers: Mavericks clinched12. Utah Jazz (35-40)
Projected seed: Lottery
Tiebreaker vs. New Orleans: Jazz clinched
Tiebreaker vs. Lakers: Jazz lead 2-0 with two to play
Tiebreaker vs. OKC: Thunder lead 2-1 with one to play
Tiebreaker vs. Portland: Blazers lead 2-1 with one to play![Profile Photo]()
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I like what I’ve seen so far from this group. It’s starting to resemble what i was hoping Rob would put together last summer.(AD’s still here so I didn’t get everything I was wishing for..lol). Even if they miss the post-season, there’s alotta good there. It ain’t the players’ fault that Rob wasted the majority of the season.
But running it back doesn’t mean we’re keeping eeerrrrbody. Of course you’ve got Lebron and AD (I guess). D.Russell if the price isn’t too crazy. Vando even though he’s regressed a lil bit recently. Reaves but the price seems to be going up daily. Rui, sure. Same with WenYen.
Dennis has probably played too well for us to afford him.
So that’s 7. The young dudes (Swider, Pip, Christie) probably stay put but their cost is negligible and they don’t see much action..worth it to keep developing them in the system.
Lonnie..it’s been nice…see ya.
Troy…I don’t know dude..will you take minimum again?
Reed…I’m surprised you’re still here.That leaves Measley & Mo. Too much money for what they’ve done. Malik actually has a decent all around game except for the glaring inconsistency from the arc since he got here..which is the only reason he was brought here. I was never sold on Mo. Not enough from these 2 to be eating up $26mill.
Don’t have the energy to dive into all the cap & tax ramifications at this point. This is all heavily dependent what the open market is for our free agents and what players are available for us to sign. So…ya know…just a buncha wild-azz conjecture from me…lol.
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…and when I talk about this roster, I’m not speaking as if they can hang with those top 4 (maybe even 5) teams in the East. I’m looking at being a top 6 team in the West next year..very different. Could be the same with nobody being truly dominant and if that’s the case we should be in the mix. Would love to see LeBron & AD somehow manage to play 65 games apiece. This is where we’re at…65 games is now Cal Ripken status…
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The lack of availability is the main reason I don’t advocate signing Irving who also is only good for about 50-60 games/season. Would rather throw a max offer at Kuzma.
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Great post, Mongo. This roster still needs a couple more tweaks. Just hoping the Lakers don’t get cold feet about the luxury taxes as they’re going to be double the $45M from last season.
I suspect we likely move Bamba for a less expensive backup center and to save some luxury taxes. I think we keep Beasley TO but maybe move him and Lonnie (S&T) for upgrade at shooting guard. At any rate, Beasley and Bamba are the question marks.
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We came out smoking from the arc while NO kept chucking even though they couldn’t hit the side of a barn. Such is the modern NBA game. This one hit garbage time before the end of the 1st quarter.
We win the game & drop to 10th? Dang.
We’ve gotta keep our head down and beat the teams we’re supposed to. Pels have a very easy stretch coming up so they’ll be hanging around for a while. Blazers seem to have packed it in. Jazz remaining sched is absolutely brutal…they’re probably done.
Looks like 5 teams (MIN, OKC, DAL, LAL, NO) chasing the 4 play-in spots. Stay frosty…
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Here’s where we stand with the other teams bunched together in the West playoff hunt:
Head-to-Head
GSW 3-1
MIN 0-2 w/1 to play
DAL 1-2 w/1 to play
LAC 0-3 w/1 to play
UTAH 0-2 w/2 to play
POR 2-2
NOP 2-1 w/1 to play
OKC 1-1 w/1to playOnly team we beat right now in Conference record is OKC
We are 4-9 in the division
GSW is 5-8
LAC is 6-7 -
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Lawd knows I’m no fan of Rob but I gotta admit he did a good job piecing this thing together after the mess we began the season with. Feels like we only gave up one good guy (T.Bryant) and picked up 4 better guys (D.Russell, Beez, Vando, Rui), 1 decent guy in Bamba, and a throw-in Reed. The picks have always been kinda inconsequential to me but we still held onto 1.
We’ll have to wait and see how it all fits together but there’s precious little time this season. After a 1 game sample size it looks…ok..so far. We won vs NO the same way we’ve done all year…bad 3pt shooting and AD deciding to play like one of the top players in the league. And that will always be the key; when AD plays like that we will win a good percentage of games…just like we were doing with the old roster before he hurt himself. If he can’t stay at that level then it’s gonna be a struggle any way you slice it. Need to see Beez hit some non-garbage-time 3’s.
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Don’t have any time to waste, so have to hit the court running Thursday night and hope we can keep the fire burning hot. If we can make the playoffs, we’re definitely going to be the team nobody wants to meet. I think this may be our best shot to win #18 so we need to really take advantage of this opportunity.
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There’s a lot being derived from one win. I’m more interested to see what they do coming out of this break. Can AD bring it
more often than not? Can LeBron play enough games for any of this to
matter? Will the new guys find a comfort zone quickly? If not look for Ham to revert roles back to guys who have been here since camp. If that happens the trade syarts yo revert hack to “we did a good job moving Russ for only one pick”. Then we’ll have to see gow many guys stay, and then comes
a summer of wonderous debate about the forthcoming season!
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….we’ve reached the portion of the program where we’re now gonna trash Coach D.Ham for being stupid & clueless. Such is the state of sports blogging I guess.
Just for context, we’ve had more starting lineup configurations than any other team in the league; so it ain’t like he’s being rigid or stale. Fact of the matter is that there’s precious little time to find a rotation that clicks (which is why these same type of moves shoulda been made last summer). We’ve already wasted the 1st two games of this new “era” by not having Lebron or Bamba available…so we’re still just whistling in the wind so far.
If Ham makes some changes (like Beez & Vando starting) and they don’t win immediately then you’ll have one faction of idiots screaming that he needs to make more changes and another faction of idiots screaming that they need more time. If he stands pat (with Dennis & Rui) you’ll have the same factions screaming the same idiotic things.
And if AD doesn’t regain his form or LBJ has lingering foot issues then none of this will matter anyway….smdh
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No AD at 80+% or LeBron same-ish = semantics.
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Their superstar went off for 40 against our full contingency of guards. Our superstar got 19 against them without their starting center & power forward. Cull the stats anyway you choose but that ain’t good from any angle.
But I didn’t get too high about the GSW win & ain’t gonna get too low after this blowout loss. It’s gonna take time to get 5 brand new top rotation guys sorted out and still nobody’s played with Lebron on the court. Right now we’re just treading water until he decides to come back. But there isn’t a whole lotta time for this thing to gel. Some experimentation and trial & error are unavoidable. with this many new moving pieces.
One other point to take into consideration; the West is so tightly bunched that much of the seeding will come down to tiebreakers. Right now we’ve got more conference losses and more division losses than anybody above us….that ain’t good either.
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Dame does this a lot. It was some other other guys that killed. When 3 players that usually usually shot 3’s in the low 30’s combine for 9 for 13 from deep, you are generally screwed.
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lol…like I said, cull the stats as you wish. The unfortunate truth is that AD also does this alot (not matching the intensity of the opposing superstar). Play Dame to a standoff and we stand a chance to win this game no matter what those 3 other dudes did. Plus…he was playing against their backups.
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I didn’t see the game..but did Zub really hang a damn near 30/30 on our big man savior Myles Turner?
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Yep. But Turner got 10 point and 5 boards! 1 for 6 from 3. Buddy chipped in 10 points 1 for 9 from 3. They’re going to save the Lakers!
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Dude has been solid since we traded for Muscala (no longer on the team). Silly to have let him walk in the first place. Why? Because we were acquiring a theoretical stretch five.
Absurd. Good players are good for the team. It’s not like every player needs to be a threat from three. not even Golden State has that. Draymond sucks from three now.
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I have always liked Zubac. Kid just worked on his game summer after summer. is it flashy? No. Does he shoot a butt ton of threes? No. Does it matter? No, the kid is good and what he’s supposed to be good at and we should have never traded for Mike Misscala.
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YOU
ARE
A
CENTER
thank you for coming to my TED talk
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I liked it, I look forward to the speaking tour.
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So I’ve been watching alotta different teams on League Pass so far this season a question has popped into my head.
How many teams in the league would trade places with us right now?
I’m not talking about the LA market or the history or all the titles and HOFers. I’m talking about this roster, the future picks, trade assets, the front office, the ownership. The entire CURRENT situation.
I could count them with only one hand and I’m not even sure i need to use all 5 fingers. Would OKC take that offer with all those young potential stars and all those picks? I wouldn’t. Sacramento might even have something cooking in Cowtown with Fox, Malik (that one stings), & Sabonis. Even freakin Orlando seems to have found a stud in Banchero. Houston has a buncha young studs trying to find their way. Pistons too. What we got? An aging, ailing big 2 whose window has closed and….and…..a few of our own picks? If I’m any of those teams I stick with the hand I’ve already got.
Maybe Spurs, Hornets, Nets (just because of all the turmoil there), and ??? Everybody else has some combination of current stars, a buncha upcoming picks or young potential stars. We’ve got neither and then you throw in the disfunction of Jeanie & Pelinka and the surrounding opinions in the room and you’ve got an unfavorable situation.
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Unfavorable is being kind. This mess can’t be cleaned up this season, not to a contending level. Trade Russ and maybe, maybe mind you, we make the playin. No combination of players in trade scenarios I’ve seen fix this with AD and LBJ playing as-is. Just let this work out and try again next summer, keep the picks unless we can magically trade them for Dame or Beal. There will be better offers, most likely. No guarantee we win that sweepstakes. So then what? Make Kuz an offer he can’t walk away from, but it won’t be a max offer so that might not even be possible. Lakers really screwed their future flexibility when they let Caruso and Schroder walk for nothing. Locked themselves into a “we have 3 massive contracts, couple MLE guys and shit-ton of minimum salary guys to work with. One can critique LeBron for pushing for Russ but every other choice is on the front office and ownership. Can’t blame Grank, won’t lick into The Bubble ever again, and we’re about to “witness” a star slowly dying and fading out unless something miraculously changes in LA. Keep the picks, we’ll need them for an AD trade at some point or simply to finally begin re-acquiring visit-controlled talent.
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…we stinky right now.
But honestly, who’s our 3rd best player on this team? The fact that nobody immediately jumped into my mind is very troubling.
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You guys need to excuse me for not posting much lately. I’ve been in the midst of a 6 day back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back of 10 hour workdays. My employer didn’t offer me the option of load management. So I don’t have a whole lotta violins to play for our guys because they worked an extra 5 minutes in Utah the night before.
And so by the logic I’ve been reading, we should open up a 20 point lead against the Suns on Friday since they’ll be playing the tail end of a back-to-back. Is that how it works…?