There wasn’t a better time The King could have returned. With the Lakers managing to secure a Play-In spot over the last 14 games, LeBron James’ return gives them all the momentum needed to make a run for the Top-6 West seedings.
The West playoff race really couldn’t have worked out better for the Lakers and LeBron James.
After suffering a pretty devastating ankle injury nearly a full month ago, the Lakers and LeBron James’ chances of making the playoffs were pretty much dashed in my eyes (along with many others) as the West was just too chaotic and volatile for a Lakers squad without the NBA’s greatest scorer to stay above the Play-In line. Well, at least half of that statement actually ended up being true.
The West has been a volatile, unpredictable race in the last month that has risen teams to fantastic heights and swallowed up others into a sightless depth of mediocracy…but the Lakers somehow steadied their season to remain in the hunt.
While teams like the Dallas Mavericks, Utah Jazz, New Orleans Pelicans, and Los Angeles Clippers have all fallen down the standings, the Lakers surprisingly went 8-5 in the 14 games without LeBron James and improved their record to 37-37, leaving them in 8th place and in the second-best Play-In spot. They’ve literally lucked their way into the Play-In seeding.
Now, to be fair, I have to point out the heroics of Anthony Davis (26.0 PPG, 13.0 RPG, 3.0 APG, and 1.6 BPG in the last 10), Austin Reaves (18.9 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 6.4 APG in the last 10), D’Angelo Russell (21.6 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 7.1 APG, and 1.0 BPG in the last 10), and Dennis Schröder (14.5 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 4.4 APG in the last 10) as their play has carried the Lakers past really good basketball teams like the Memphis Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors, and Phoenix Suns during their 8-5 run.
Nevertheless, the Lakers squeaking into the Play-In standings has a large part to do with the utter collapse of the Mavericks, Jazz, and Pelicans as these three teams, all of which were in the Top-10 seeding when LeBron James went down with injury, have either fallen out of the Play-In or are barely hanging on.
I don’t want to sound like I’m discrediting the Lakers as this team has completely turned around its woeful fortunes from the first half of the year, but to say they aren’t lucky their rivals have fallen off the face of the Earth would be equally as wrong.
So, instead of crapping/overpraising on the Lakers as nearly every media talking head does, I’m going to praise them for being one of the few consistent/average teams in the Western Conference’s 6th-12th seedings, even if said consistency can be akin to mediocrity.
I mean, the Lakers are still only a .500 team with a 37-37 record.
Regardless, getting LeBron James back will be a massive boost for the Lakers as he should at least be able to secure them one of the top seedings in the Play-In Round, if not a run on the Warriors’ stranglehold on the 6th and final automatic West playoff seed.
Though, that’s going to be a tough task for even the greatest NBA scorer as the Warriors are not only 2.5 games ahead of the Lakers with just seven games left in both team’s, respective, seasons, but James is going to have to readjust to the fast-paced NBA game as his return debut today didn’t go as planned with the 10th East seeded Chicago Bulls beating the Lakers 118-108.
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