This fukking conference is wide the fukk open. Anyone who can't even admit the Lakers have a shot is on some blatant hating bias...
And the reason the Lakers have a shot at coming out the conference:
•there are no GREAT West teams this year;
•multiple West contenders are dependent on health the same way LA is;
•Lakers have depth, high end superstars, elite defense, and can now play offense thru multiple creators...
The Lakers were 25-31 when they swung the D'Lo/Beasley/Vanderbilt trades...
The Lakers are 37-37 now, meaning they've gone 12-6 from Feb 10, forward. Just a quick overview of the Top 10 squads since Feb 10:
Grizzlies 13-6 (.684)
Kings 13-6 (.684)
LAKERS 12-6 (.667)
Nuggets 11-6 (.647)
Warriors 11-9 (.550)
Clippers 8-8 (.500)
Suns 8-8 (.500)
Thunder 10-10 (.500)
Jazz 8-9 (.471)
Wolves 7-9 (.438)
For the last 43 days/month and a half the Lakers have played like a Top 4 team on the conference. It's showing I the results and it's showing when you watch them play. They're behind in the standings because they began the year 2-10---->their .565 record since that start puts them at #4---->they didn't have wins in the bank so they've spent essentially rhe entire season trying to climb out the grave...
But if we're talking the here and now they are playing like one of the elite teams in basketball. And we all know the playoffs are often about who gets hot at the right time, especially in years the pack is so jumbled...
Anybody can beat anyone in this fukking West. Anyone righting the Lakers off isn't paying attention or just blatantly hating...