Los Angeles Lakers: Suspended season takes away a Clippers advantage

While we are without Los Angeles Lakers basketball right now, the team has ironically closed any sort of gap with the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers and the rest of the sports world are on hold as concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic grow. After learning that Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus, the NBA became the first major American sports league to suspend its season.

The suspension is at least going to last 30 days but the NBA has not commented on whether or not it will extend longer.

Brad Turner of the L.A. Times reported that Laker players came away from a conference call with Frank Vogel and Rob Pelinka under the impression that NBA owners want to finish the season, even if that leads to it bleeding into July or August.

It is also unclear whether or not the NBA wants to aim for an 82-game schedule and rework the dates, wants to slash a certain number of games or even wants to jump straight into the playoffs. These are all possibilities, as well as canceling the season, and all we can do is play it by ear and wait for the NBA’s official announcement.

If the year does go on and the NBA Finals are played then the Los Angeles Lakers can take at least one positive out of the situation: it eliminates one of the few advantages that the Los Angeles Clippers had over the Lakers.

The Clippers and Lakers seem to be on a destined path to square off in the Western Conference Finals. All year that has been the narrative around the two teams as they are far and away the two best teams in the West.

One of the touted advantages for the Los Angeles Clippers heading into the playoffs is that the team would be more rested. While the load management and injuries hurt the regular-season record, the Clippers could make the case of having fewer miles on their legs and thus would be fresher after two playoff series.

That logic is not completely sound, as you could make the case that the Lakers’ core would be more prepared for a deep playoff run as they played multiple games in a row all season, but getting deep into the playoffs is taxing.

Plus, there is also proof in the pudding with Kawhi Leonard, who only played 60 games last year and seemingly started to run out of fas until the very end of the Toronto Raptors’ Finals run.

So yes, it does make sense for the Clippers to load manage even if the advantages might not have been as fruitful as some fans made it out to be. However, that does not even matter now, considering the Lakers too are getting at least a month’s rest from game action.

The number one thing we should be concerned about is doing out part to help this public health crisis slow down, but it is nice to know that we can take some positives out of the situation in regards to the Los Angeles Lakers.

For more information about COVID-19, visit the CDC’s website or the website for your state’s Department of Health.