i agree with sirron that intentionally playing to miss a matchup is lame. but i can still hope for easier matchups as a fan. the tougher the series, the longer it goes, the more likely a key player can get injured--and that's what determines basically every nba champion these days: who's still standing.
I think you can make a fair case that each of the Nuggets, Clippers, Warriors, Wolves or Grizzlies are a good or bad matchup for us. Even the Grizzlies, who seem to be the consensus least dangerous of that bunch, have talent, size and athleticism. They might be the most beatable, but I wouldn't call them an "easy" matchup by any means.
i think the recency effect of just denver and memphis not playing well going into the playoffs is probably what impacts my judgment. everyone else has been winning a lot. but yeah, everyone's record is nearly identical for a reason.
For the Lakers to win in the playoffs they have to have Bron, Luka and AR all have good/great games, limit sloppy turnovers, limit 2nd chance points AND have at least 1 or 2 bench players hit open shots. Every team has some form of advantage on the others. We suffer from lack of size which means like the paperclips with Zu will be tough. But in the end, who is stopping our 3-headed (nearly) triple-double monster? Play smart and we beat any of them even OKC
Yeah it's interesting to think who doesn't want to face the Lakers in the other direction. Which is basically everyone? Thinking through this a lot of us don't like the Clippers matchup but man I don't think Lue likes the idea of going against Luka again. The Wolves hell no after last year vs Luka as well. OKC completely looked mortal against LA I think GS is the one that probably not overly concerned with the Lakers versus the rest of the West but they probably want to avoid Houston if anything so hopefully they try to get out of that 6th spot