As the Los Angeles Lakers prepare to tip off their first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets, the overwhelming narrative for Los Angeles has been survival.
Losing Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves to injury, the Lakers enter the postseason shorthanded, depending on a 41-year-old LeBron James to pull off the unthinkable against a physical Rockets team.
Should Los Angeles really pull it off, one NBA pundit believes their path forward could prove to be troublesome.
The Downside to the Lakers’ Playoff Survival Plan
Analyzing the bracket on his YouTube channel, Jovan Buha said the timing of the injuries could be critical for the Lakers. While avoiding the Minnesota Timberwolves, who eliminated them last year, could be seen as a relief, getting past Houston won’t be easy.
Despite that, Buha noted that the Rockets are still a much more preferable draw than Minnesota.
“I think however you feel about the Lakers probability of getting out of the first round… With Luka’s potential return, Austin’s potential return, and if the Lakers can extend the series and make it competitive to start without those guys, certainly have a higher probability… compared to Minnesota,” Buha said.
Hypothetically, if James and the shorthanded rotation somehow pull off the upset or extend the series long enough for Dončić and Reaves to return, there is one issue.
The Oklahoma City Thunder.
“The downside to this path is that if they somehow find a way to beat Houston without Luka, without Austin, or maybe they get one or both of those guys back at some point, they will have very little time to have re-gelled and figured out the updated rotation going into a series with OKC,” Buha explained.
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“[OKC] has had their number all season,” Buha said. “…Granted, one of those games was most recently with no Luka, no LeBron, no Austin. But in two of the games with two of those three guys, they were blown out… So that would be a tall task to even make that series competitive.”
“But that’s a problem for the next round,” he bluntly remarked.
The Rockets are a “tall task” in their own right. Having closed out the regular season on a blistering 9-1 run, they are able to physically overwhelm opponents with a suffocating defense.
With Game 1 scheduled to tip off this Saturday, head coach JJ Redick and the Lakers have their task cut out, and if they can’t find a way to match Houston’s physicality, speculation about navigating OKC won’t even matter.
