Lakers: 3 Teams they should want to face from the West in the playoffs
By Nick Ziegler
– Denver Nuggets
The final team that the Lakers should want to play from the West in the playoffs is the Denver Nuggets. Currently, the Nuggets have the third-best record in the Western Conference behind just the Lakers and the Clippers.
If things go as chalk, the Clippers and the Nuggets could play each other in the second round of the playoffs. For the last couple of years, the Nuggets have been one of the best teams in the West, but that success in the regular season hasn’t translated into a ton of playoff success.
One of the best big men in the league is Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets. He can do it all on the offensive end of the court, but his defense has been suspect and so has his conditioning. In the playoffs, Jokic has shown to fade late in games and series, as he doesn’t quite appear to be in the best of shape. With us being in a long layoff, it would be very interesting to see how well-conditioned Jokic has stayed.
Unlike the Lakers, the Nuggets also don’t have a second star to help ease the workload of Jokic. Asking the center to play 40+ minutes and run the offense through him, for the most part, is not easy.
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When you get into the playoffs, all the teams that make it are a threat. However, the Lakers should much rather face the Nuggets as the three seed than the Clippers as the two seed.