Gregg Popovich is probably having a good laugh about the dilemma the Los Angeles Lakers are facing right now. The San Antonio Spurs coach who, by all accounts, holds a particular distaste for the team he has faced seven times in the postseason, accidentally steered his eternal rivals into an iceberg when his young team stunned the Denver Nuggets on the second-to-last game of the regular season. That victory knocked the Nuggets from the top spot in the Western Conference to second. Now, should the Lakers defeat the New Orleans Pelicans in Tuesday’s Western Conference play-in game, they would face the defending champs in the first round of the playoffs.
If the Lakers do indeed face the Nuggets in the first round, they will lose that series. Forgive the certainty behind that statement, but it’s based in history. The Lakers have lost eight games in a row to Denver. Every game follows more or less the same trajectory. The Nuggets play with their food for 40 minutes or so before deciding to eat it and stomp the Lakers in the final frame. The Lakers got outscored by 15 points in 11 clutch minutes against Denver in last year’s Western Conference finals. They’ve been outscored by 17 points in seven clutch minutes against them this regular season. Short of a significant injury, the Lakers are not going to beat the Nuggets. Denver outclasses them in pretty much every regard.
So dire is a possible rematch with the champs that a growing contingent of fans and critics have suggested that the Lakers intentionally lose their play-in game against the Pelicans on Tuesday. Doing so would put them in a do-or-die (but home) play-in game against the winner of the day’s other West matchup between the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors. Should the Lakers win that game, which would be played Friday night on two days rest, they would face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round, a team they went 3-1 against this season.
The Nuggets would face the Pelicans in the first round and then either the Suns or the Timberwolves in the second. The best-case…
..
