Los Angeles Lakers: Return to play format poses significant disadvantage

The Los Angeles Lakers are among the favorites to win the NBA title when play resumes, but one glaring disadvantage could alter their chances entirely.

Before the NBA suspended the season back in March, the Los Angeles Lakers stood atop the Western Conference and were the favorites to make it to the NBA Finals for many. However, even though the Lakers looked to be at their best in over a decade, the one potential roadblock to achieving their title aspirations was the rivaling LA Clippers.

Right behind the Lakers in the 2-seed, the Clippers kept pace with Los Angeles all season long and showcased that they were the team most fitted to defeat them in a potential series. The Clippers took the season series 2-1 against the Lakers, and many hoped these two teams would meet again in the Western Conference Finals after those three top-heavy matchups.

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With the NBA returning on July 31st, that postseason matchup could soon become a reality. However, if so, the Lakers will be without a significant advantage they originally had over the Clippers: the illustrious home-court advantage.

Due to the Lakers being the hometown favorites rather than the Clippers, the Lakers were essentially the home team in all three games this season. Although the Lakers only won one of those games, that home crowd would have been a significant advantage come the playoffs. Had the NBA played a regular season and these teams met up in the Western Conference Finals, it would have seemingly been up to seven straight home games for the Lakers.

Now that the NBA has its sights set to finishing the season at Disney World, no team will have home-court advantage in empty arenas. Although the absence of home-court hurts every top-tier contender, none will be more affected than the Los Angeles Lakers in a potential series against the LA Clippers.

Shams Charina of The Athletic reported that the league is considering crowd noise from the popular NBA 2K video game, a rather smart idea to make the games seem lively. However, unless they make almost the entire “crowd” Lakers’ fans, it will not mean much all-together for the purple and gold.

The Clippers were always second fiddle in LA to the Lakers, and now without home-court, seemingly have a better shot then before in a series between the two. This Clippers team has basically been an away team whenever they play in Los Angeles regardless, and this irregular scenario without home-court could prove to be an advantage for them because of it.

The loss of the home crowd does not automatically make the LA Clippers the immediate favorites over the Los Angeles Lakers, but it certainly helps compared to what would have been.

However, as apparent as these issues will prove to be for the Los Angeles Lakers, they still have LeBron James and Anthony Davis leading the way. The Lakers will likely lock up the top seed in the Western Conference and still be the favorites to make it to the NBA Finals, but it will not be without its challenges.

Besides having LeBron James, the Lakers have lost arguably the most significant advantage in sports, which could make this potential matchup that much more exciting.

Home-court advantage or not, the better team would win this seven-game series, and hopefully, these two juggernauts get to square off in the coming months.