With a record of 35-37, the Los Angeles Lakers are now the No. 11 seed in the West. They wouldn’t even have the opportunity to compete for a playoff spot if the Play-In began today.
The good news for LA fans everywhere, however, is that the Lakers have the easiest schedule in the entire league for the last stretch of the regular season — at least on paper. As such, they are still expected to, at the very least, qualify for the Play-In tournament out West.
If you ask former NBA superstar Gilbert Arenas, he believes it’s playoff or bust for the Lakers — even with LeBron James out injured. In his mind, Arenas believes that given their current schedule and with Anthony Davis in the mix, the Lakers should be able to book their place in the playoffs in spite of James’ injury absence:
“If you can’t win without LeBron and you have Anthony Davis with the easiest schedule out of the other 29 teams, then let it go,” Arenas said. “Go ahead and start shipping out because there ain’t even no point. [LeBron] should be able to come back in April — one or two games left — to just make sure his ankle is fine. … Anthony Davis is supposed to be carrying [the Lakers] to the promised land.”
"If you can't win without LeBron and you have Anthony Davis with the easiest schedule out of the other 29 teams, then let it go."
Gilbert Arenas on wanting to see the Lakers make a playoff push without LeBron 🗣
(via @GilsArena)pic.twitter.com/GwJKxIgRnC
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) March 20, 2023
Does he have a point here? If the Lakers somehow fail to make the playoffs this season, is it time for the front office to blow it all up in the summer? Rob Pelinka did a masterful job of significantly improving the roster right before the NBA trade deadline expired, and if that still doesn’t work out, then it would be a catastrophe for the Lakers, right?
With LeBron still on the mend, there’s going to be a lot of pressure on Anthony Davis to carry this team to the playoffs. AD has been inconsistent so far, to say the least, but he will need to step up to the plate now that his team needs him the most.
Source: https://clutchpoints.com
