NBA Power Rankings week 10: OKC Thunder vault up ladder
26-7. Previous: 4th. Los Angeles Lakers. 7. team. 20.
Los Angeles Lakers:
Offense: (111.7) 5th
Defense: (104.8) 8th
Net: (plus +6.9) 4th
Games Week 10 (2-1): Won vs Blazers 128-120, Mavs: 108-95, Lost to Clippers: 106-111
Games Week 11: Weds vs Suns | Fri vs Pelicans | Sun vs Pistons
Just as the Lakers start showing chinks in the armor they get a reprieve from the schedule Gods with the Suns, Pelicans, and Pistons coming to Staples this week.
Sure, the Pelicans have some guys who’ll be happy to show the crowd what they’ve lost but the clear advantage lies with the Lakers who’ll utilize this ease in the schedule to hopefully get LeBron James and Anthony Davis a bit of rest. After this week and another easy victim, er opponent in the Knicks the Lakers will take to the road for seven of nine games with all but one team a playoff seed.
And return to face the team they want to win against the most – the Clippers. To that end, the one commonality of the two losses to the Clippers is the Lakers can hang with their Staples counterparts through three quarters but in the final frame fatigue catches up and they fall off.
This has more to do with depth and LeBron and AD having to carry too much of the load.
It still feels like the Lakers are in need of one or two more contributors or two-way players but since the rich only get richer we can assume some player will take an egregiously underpaid contract to join them — as long as the Clippers don’t get to that individual first.