Lakers are now in serious danger of missing the play-in

Post #81 » by **NO-KG-AI** » Sun Mar 27, 2022 5:39 pm

I like the play-in, and not because my team has a chance to make it. I think of the teams near the bottom of seeding, the most interesting matchups aren't going to be who was better all year, but who is playing the best basketball at the current time. I think it also stops teams who had secured a good record early on but are limping into the post season and completely injured from going in over teams that are getting healthy and dangerous at the right time.

Overall, for bottom seeds, I'd rather the team that is hot go in than the team that is limping.

Richard4444 · Post #82 » by **Richard4444** » Sun Mar 27, 2022 5:42 pm

worldjbfree wrote:Spurs got the win against the Pelicans today. They are now just a game behind NOLA, and 1.5 back of the Lakers. Here are each team's remaining schedule:

Spurs
Mon, Mar 28 @ Houston
Wed, Mar 30 vs Memphis
Fri, Apr 1 vs Portland
Sun, Apr 3 vs Portland
Tue, Apr 5 @ Denver
Thu, Apr 7 @ Minnesota
Sat, Apr 9 vs Golden State
Sun, Apr 10 @ Dallas

Pelicans
Sun, Mar 27 vs LA Lakers
Wed, Mar 30 @ Portland
Fri, Apr 1 @ LA Lakers
Sun, Apr 3 @ LA Clippers
Tue, Apr 5 @ Sacramento
Thu, Apr 7 vs Portland
Sat, Apr 9 @ Memphis
Sun, Apr 10 vs Golden State

Lakers
Sun, Mar 27 @ New Orleans
Tue, Mar 29 @ Dallas
Thu, Mar 31 @ Utah
Fri, Apr 1 vs New Orleans
Sun, Apr 3 vs Denver
Tue, Apr 5 @ Phoenix
Thu, Apr 7 @ Golden State
Fri, Apr 8 vs Oklahoma City
Sun, Apr 10 @ Denver

The Spurs and the Pelicans will play 3 tanking teams each. The Lakers will play only 1 tanking team.

NyKnicks1714 · Post #83 » by **NyKnicks1714** » Sun Mar 27, 2022 5:49 pm

Snakebites wrote:
xdrta+ wrote:
ropjhk wrote:
I wouldn't say it works great. It's alienating a large portion of the fanbase. It devalues the regular season and makes it less important for many people to watch regular season games.

Nah, it's alienating a few purists on message boards, usually ones who are all in favor of cutting back the season anyway, but the general fanbase? I doubt it. It creates interest in more cities than ever which increases the total fanbase. It's definitely working as intended. They will certainly keep it in the future.

Yeah, I think the community at large (IE, the online community that spends lots of time on Realgm, or even places like Reddit) forget that they really aren't a representative sampling of fans at large.

I'd imagine the play-in is a lot more popular with casual fans than it is with the types of fans on these message boards.

I don't think it's necessarily popular with casual fans; they're just too smart to have a strong opinion about it.

MotownMadness · Post #84 » by **MotownMadness** » Sun Mar 27, 2022 6:13 pm

Plus remember the league was getting so lame even fans on here would be like "who cares about home court advantage or seeding, just rest your guys"

Things got a bit more competitive now and you better work hard for those top seeds. Same goes for the back half of the lottery.

KembaWalker · Post #85 » by **KembaWalker** » Sun Mar 27, 2022 6:16 pm

LeBron has to decide whats best for his legacy, a first round sweep, knocked out in the play in, or missing the playoffs entirely. Tough choice

worldjbfree · Post #86 » by **worldjbfree** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 3:15 am

Lakers lost to the Pelicans tonight, so we'll see how much this matters in two weeks.

SeniorWalker · Post #87 » by **SeniorWalker** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 3:34 am

Lakers might get a break with teams likely resting players in the coming games but they do have a real chance to miss. Which is not what I thought would happen two months ago.

sp6r=underrated · Post #88 » by **sp6r=underrated** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 3:53 am

KembaWalker wrote:LeBron has to decide whats best for his legacy, a first round sweep, knocked out in the play in, or missing the playoffs entirely. Tough choice

Watch on YouTube

BuddyBuckets · Post #89 » by **BuddyBuckets** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 4:02 am

SeniorWalker wrote:Lakers might get a break with teams likely resting players in the coming games but they do have a real chance to miss. Which is not what I thought would happen two months ago.

Teams may also not want to face LeBron in the playoffs and figure beating them once now is easier than beating them 4 times a few weeks later?

CIN-C-STAR · Post #90 » by **CIN-C-STAR** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 4:03 am

SeniorWalker wrote:Lakers might get a break with teams likely resting players in the coming games but they do have a real chance to miss. Which is not what I thought would happen two months ago.

Why do we assume this will benefit LA more than NO or SA though?
If you look at the Pelicans schedule, their last two games are against Memphis and Golden State.
Might not BOTH of those teams strategically rest guys if they have a chance at the #2 seed, in order to avoid aany possibility of the Lakers as the #7 seed?
Potentially they could hand the Pelicans two wins to finish out the season to eliminate the Lakers.

Slim Charlez · Post #91 » by **Slim Charlez** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 4:13 am

This is the team that people claim could beat the Phoenix Suns? At this point I'd be surprised if they were able to beat the Phoenix Mercury.

tarantism · Post #92 » by **tarantism** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 5:01 am

BuddyBuckets wrote:
SeniorWalker wrote:Lakers might get a break with teams likely resting players in the coming games but they do have a real chance to miss. Which is not what I thought would happen two months ago.

Teams may also not want to face LeBron in the playoffs and figure beating them once now is easier than beating them 4 times a few weeks later?

I don't think LeBron scares teams like that anymore. It's already been shown that even when LeBron goes nuclear its probably still gonna be a close game. Not saying teams are lining up to face off with LeBron in a series, but they aren't scared of this Lakers team like that.

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Dominator83 · Post #93 » by **Dominator83** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 5:34 am

KembaWalker wrote:LeBron has to decide whats best for his legacy, a first round sweep, knocked out in the play in, or missing the playoffs entirely. Tough choice

Better than losing in the finals!

John Murdoch · Post #94 » by **John Murdoch** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 5:56 am

Slim Charlez wrote:This is the team that people claim could beat the Phoenix Suns? At this point I'd be surprised if they were able to beat the Phoenix Mercury.

What? Last yrs team..no one is saying this yrs team

KingFox · Post #95 » by **KingFox** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 8:28 am

NO-KG-AI wrote:I like the play-in, and not because my team has a chance to make it. I think of the teams near the bottom of seeding, the most interesting matchups aren't going to be who was better all year, but who is playing the best basketball at the current time. I think it also stops teams who had secured a good record early on but are limping into the post season and completely injured from going in over teams that are getting healthy and dangerous at the right time.

Overall, for bottom seeds, I'd rather the team that is hot go in than the team that is limping.

THIS! And, to me, if you lose one or two important games as the 7th or 8th seed and get bounced, you probably don't deserve to be in the playoffs anyhow.

RB34 · Post #96 » by **RB34** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 10:50 am

KembaWalker wrote:LeBron has to decide whats best for his legacy, a first round sweep, knocked out in the play in, or missing the playoffs entirely. Tough choice

He’s going to hang his hat on the scoring title.

AussieCeltic · Post #97 » by **AussieCeltic** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 10:53 am

I just read somewhere that the Lakers haven’t used Lebrons image on social media when they lose.

They’ve used:

- Malik Monk x 10
- THT x 5
- Wayne Ellington x 5

But in the wins it’s the opposite

- Lebron x 10
- Westbrook x 9

Does any other team do this? I know the Celtics use all players graphics for wins and losses. Our last loss, Tatum was used as the graphic.

I know it might not seem like much but it doesn’t exactly scream team cohesion when this type of thing happens.

KrAzY3 · Post #98 » by **KrAzY3** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 1:16 pm

AussieCeltic wrote:I know it might not seem like much but it doesn’t exactly scream team cohesion when this type of thing happens.

Everyone already knows that when the Lakers win it's all Lebron and when they lose it's someone else's fault. Only right that the graphics reflect this.

Whole Truth · Post #99 » by **Whole Truth** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 2:06 pm

I don't think teams should be in a position to lose what they earned all yr but in an attempt to discourage teams from tanking... make only the 8th seed up for grabs. IMO the 7th seed should not be at risk with a 8-10 game separation from the 10th seed.

9 home against 10, winner gets a B2B rest disadvantage against the 8th seed at home.

ropjhk · Post #100 » by **ropjhk** » Mon Mar 28, 2022 2:56 pm

NO-KG-AI wrote:I like the play-in, and not because my team has a chance to make it. I think of the teams near the bottom of seeding, the most interesting matchups aren't going to be who was better all year, but who is playing the best basketball at the current time. I think it also stops teams who had secured a good record early on but are limping into the post season and completely injured from going in over teams that are getting healthy and dangerous at the right time.

Overall, for bottom seeds, I'd rather the team that is hot go in than the team that is limping.

I can see why people would like that but for me the problem I have is that the play in devalues the beginning of the regular season. It allows teams like the Nets to play like crap during the regular season and then turn it on at the end of the season to make the playoffs. It devalues the top seeds and lessens the reward for being excellent throughout the regular season like the Suns by giving them a potentially stronger 7th or 8th seed than they otherwise would have to face.

If the top four seeds were allowed to pick their first round opponent that would maybe offset some of my complaints against the play in. The top teams would have continued incentive to play better in the regular season. Teams around the 5th-7th seeds will continue to have incentive to avoid the play-in. The teams around 8th-11th will still have incentive to position themselves into the play-in.

Will the Lakers make the play-in