Standings Watch: Race To The Playoffs

I want for him to rock-the-baby against Russ. He broke out too-small against Bev, it's only fitting.

 

He should son him like Pau did to Paul

 

Your new avi seems as if Austin is not really sincere with his "love it" reaction. More like a sarcastic meaning to it. Can't figure out why. Maybe because it was his face when LeBron was lecturing him for something that wasn't his fault?

:THT Heart Hands:

 

Let everyone rest today. Avoiding injuries is what matters most.

And I'd rather Lakers get into 7th/8th play-in spot instead of going to the 5th seed. The chances of making the second round are much higher if we go through the Playin and Nuggets/Grizzlies instead of the Suns.

 

NO.

 

Do NOT duck the Suns. I repeat...do NOT DUCK THE SUNS.

With that said....IF LeBron/AD are NOT good to go tonight after medical examinations or whatever...do not risk it.

We need good health going into the playoffs. Period.

 

NO. Shoot them up we need this win. PLUS reduce their effing minutes and use the depth and motivation of this talented roster to keep players' energy high.

 

You could argue that a full week of rest is more helpful than adding another two playoff games of wear and tear by ducking better competition and hiding in the play-in

 

Pelicans just keep catching break after break

 

oh good lord. now they get memphis without morant?

 

This can still work out well for us. If Grizz lose and Kings beat the Mavs tonight, then the Kings are only 1 game behind and own the tiebreaker. Then the Grizz have Milwaukee while the Kings play the Warriors on Friday.

If the Kings are within a game of the 2 seed, then they may feel incentivized to go hard against the Warriors, giving us leeway in case we lose tonight, against Phoenix, or in a perfect world put us in position to rest our stars for our final game of the season.

 

Imagine what Kobe would say if someone in his locker room suggested purposefully losing a game because they were scared of having to play against a specific team in the playoffs. The Mamba mentality does not permit this kind of thinking.

 

This is the way.

If AD or LeBron gets injured tonight, we will all be distraught, even the people who want to go all out tonight. But it's easy to see that there's a substantially increased amount of risk tonight. AD hasn't played in a back-to-back since returning from injury, his first one shouldn't be after playing 42 minutes in an OT game the night before. Same with LeBron, who has been on a minutes restriction since returning from injury, which was blown up by the OT pushing him to 38 instead of 29-32. The priority should be on their health and availability for the post-season, especially since we are already locked in to the play-in or better.

 

Yeah honestly I'm very split on what to do....if we didn't go to OT last night the way we did, I'd say they for sure should play.

I could see the lakers going in between and resting AD but playin Bron/DLO and activating Bamba.

but personally, I think that everyone should just play and let the chips fall where they may. We can't throw this game intentionally and I'm sure there's A LOT of talk right now with the higher ups on what they wanna do. This is def a tough one man...I just feel like basketball Gods will punish us if we try to avoid the Suns. We need all the good karma on our side...that's why my vote is for them to play.

 

It feels like LeBron and AD will sit out, the game-time decision designation is just to keep the Clippers on their toes. If DLO and Bamba play I think we can still win this. The Clippers are missing PG and have not been playing well, I think they’re under .500 since Russ arrived.

DLO / Dennis
Reaves / Beasley
Rui / Lonnie
Vando / Brown Jr
Bamba / Gabriel

I like Rui as the matchup on Kawhi due to his strength. If these guys play loose and free I think the Clippers could choke this one away.

 

Do. Not. Tank. Any. Games. Period.

We had the chance to win early in the year and get a cushion at the end of the year. We sucked at doing that so now we have to play every game like it is a playoff game to ensure 1. we don't wind up in the play-in tournament and 2. we don't further embarrass the Lakers name by doing that crap.

If players are legit injured then sit them. If they want to monitor minutes for guys like Bron and AD then they can get a lot of rest in the 2nd and 3rd qtrs. Whatever we do we need to have all hands on deck and put out our best effort to get the W.

Its hard to fathom anyone would want this team to do that considering only last night we saw them choke away a solid lead in the final 90 seconds to get forced into overtime. Not fire I want to play with.

 

It would result in Russ murdering him he don't play that stuff