LOS ANGELES – With the Los Angeles Lakers’ 120-108 win against the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday, they moved ahead of the Nuggets for third place in the Western Conference standings. While the Oklahoma City Thunder are leading the pack by a good margin, the fight for the other top playoff seeds, and homecourt advantage in the first round, is tight coming down the stretch. Lakers head coach JJ Redick has already said the goal is to make the playoffs and avoid the play-in.
But following the Lakers win against the Nuggets, JJ Redick had a bit of a warning for the team when it comes to potentially manipulating matchups and seedings for the playoffs.
“We would all love to have homecourt advantage. It would be nice. And our group has been awesome at home, so far they have. But again, you gotta play the next game and you gotta win the game in front of you,” Redick said. “And then, I’ve seen it too many times, the basketball gods. You start messing around with things, the basketball gods, they will punish you.”
During the two seasons that Darvin Ham was the head coach, the Lakers finished in the play-in. Right now, the Lakers are on pace to make the postseason outright without having to go through the play-in. They are currently four and half games ahead of the Los Angeles Clippers who are in play-in positioning at seventh place.
The Lakers can still make the playoffs outright without having homecourt advantage in the first round if they finish either fifth or sixth in the West. But the West playoff picture is tightening up as the final stretch of the regular season approaches. Two games is all that separates two through five which is presently the Houston Rockets, Lakers, Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies, respectively.
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