What are the Los Angeles Lakers’ Postseason expectations?

While we can’t have our eyes and ears inside the locker room itself, we can see how the team is making it’s case as a strong postseason contender with their recent acquisitions at the trade deadline, and their much-improved play since then. The team trading away Russell Westbrook was an unfortunate necessity for the Lakers as they sought to bring in a different system, much like the one in 2020, for LeBron James and Anthony Davis. With Russell being removed from the lineup, and with the additions of players such as D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, Jared Vanderbilt, Rui Hachimura, etc, we see a system of offense that allows the Lakers to move much more freely on the court.

With the new-look team, they have the ability to stretch the floor much more than before the deadline, and this allows Anthony Davis and LeBron James the ability to be more dominant in their ability to get to the basket. Having shooters like Beasley and D’Angelo on the court has vastly improved the team’s 3-point percentage and volume, which what was sorely lacking for this team earlier in the season when the backcourt of Beverly and Westbrook were unable to convert 3-point opportunities at an efficient clip. This poses danger for teams in the Western Conference, many of whom have had their seeding interrupted by the Lakers, and could even set LA to take on the untested Sacramento Kings in the 1st round of the playoffs in the battle of the 3 and 6 seeds. While the Kings have been a historic offense this season, with 119.4 points scored per 100 possessions (the highest in league history) , the team does not have a solid playoff pedigree for their stars. Their high-octane offense will be tested against the defensive-minded coaching from Darvin Ham and the Lakers, who are starting to pick up steam offensively themselves.

What does this mean? This means that if the Lakers are to draw the Kings in the first round, we are undoubtedly in for a show. While the Lakers are a newly formed team that is still figuring out their cohesion, they look as steady as most of the other teams in the conference with their recent play. If the Lakers were to advance, some of their opponents may be the Nuggets, whom have been very rocky as we reach the end of the regular season, the Warriors, who have had attrition as it comes to their success playing on the road this year and have done so without Andrew Wiggins, the Phoenix Suns, who traded away youth and depth for Kevin Durant, or perhaps Memphis, another team that has not been fully tested in the playoffs since they’ve begun their resurgence.

This is all to say that the West is extremely uncertain, and there is no clear answer on who will be the team to make it out. This is the time for good teams to capitalize on the chaos and uncertainty that has followed the Western Conference race all season. There are some certainties that can be found in Los Angeles, however, and that is that they are captained by two extremely talented championship teammates, and they’re eager to prove to the world that they’re still a dominant force in their conference, and the league itself. One thing is clear, nobody wants to play this team and beat them 4 times, and their ability to capitalize on mismatches is unheralded as well. We’ll see if this deadline-created team can pull it all together to make a push into the playoff, as it won’t be the first time James or the Lakers have done just that.