The Los Angeles Lakers clinched a playoff spot on Tuesday with a play-in tournament win over the New Orleans Pelicans. They will begin the playoffs on Saturday against the Denver Nuggets, the defending NBA champions.
The Lakers seem unable to beat the Nuggets. Nikola Jokic and crew have beaten them eight straight times, which includes last year’s sweep in the Western Conference finals and a series sweep in the regular season this year.
Right away, fans will be treated to a possible heavyweight-type battle in the first round of the playoffs. Most don’t think the Lakers have a real chance, but perhaps their best chance of knocking off Denver is now rather than later in the postseason.
Skip Bayless took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to not only echo the message that now is L.A.’s best shot against the Nuggets, but also that the team is actually better than the Nuggets.
The Lakers are better than the Nuggets. Now they have an early-round opportunity to PLAY better than the Nuggets … before LeBron "runs out of gas."
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) April 17, 2024
To be fair, several of those eight straight games L.A. has lost to the Nuggets have been competitive until the final minutes. LeBron James is relatively healthy this time around, and D’Angelo Russell, who played very poorly in last season’s playoffs against the Nuggets, is enjoying arguably his best year ever.