Los Angeles Lakers: Ranking their top championship threats

1. LA Clippers

One wouldn’t have to be an expert to have the LA Clippers as the biggest threats to any championship chances the Los Angeles Lakers may have. Fans have been waiting for over 40 years for this type of rivalry amongst LA teams, and they have finally got a great one.

The Clippers join the Nuggets as one of the teams with no NBA Finals appearance, something they seek to change immediately. Unlike the Nuggets, Kawhi’s team doesn’t have the term “Western Conference Finals” anywhere near their dictionary, with their most successful seasons ending in a few conference semifinals losses.

Unfortunately for the Lakers, history books don’t determine seasons, they just capture them whenever they’re done. To top that off, most recent history shows that the Lakers should be seriously concerned about the Clippers.

In the two face-offs so far, the Lakers have lost both games on the big stage, once in the season opener and once on Christmas Day.

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Conversely to the Los Angeles Lakers, the LA Clippers have a tendency to rest their players very often and avoid playing back-to-back games as much as they can. Even though that is a great strategy to avoid any significant injuries, it does prevent the team from finding its groove and build the correct team chemistry.

The Clippers have been extremely sloppy this season against below .500 teams with a record of 26-9, which puts them 11th in the league. Yes, they are resting players often, but it’s not just that. The inconsistency is apparent to anyone.

The odds of an LA team playing in the NBA Finals are incredibly high. The odds of both teams competing in the conference finals are sky-high. A series as such would have every basketball enthusiast engrossed in front of the TV as The King and The Klaw go head-to-head for a chance at the ultimate prize.