NBA play-in must-follow storylines: Warriors vs Lakers
Wednesday night all eyes in the basketball world will be looking west, as the Los Angeles Lakers host the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the NBA’s new play-in tournament. The winner will move on to face the Phoenix Suns in the full playoff bracket, while the loser will host the other Western Conference Play-in winner for one last chance at the postseason field.
It seems insane that the NBA’s two most marketable stars in LeBron James and Stephen Curry could be this close to missing the playoffs. One of those two will be in an elimination game as soon as Friday. Critics of the play-in games are apoplectic that the league could blow this so spectacularly.
The other side of the coin is much shinier, though. The league gets to showcase its two biggest stars on national television in an instant Game 7. Then they get to show off the second two days later. While anything could happen, the most likely scenario is that both get into the field anyway, as the loser Wednesday will be favored on Friday. That seems like a success in the full play-in’s first real season.
Two of the league’s biggest stars meet in the NBA play-in game. Who has the edge as the Los Angeles Lakers host the Golden State Warriors?
The Los Angeles Lakers were never supposed to be in the play-in game. The defending champions came into the season with high expectations, the betting favorites to win the title once again. They started the year on that trajectory, with a 21-6 record and the league’s best defense when Anthony Davis went down with an Achilles injury. They maintained the defense but their offense fell into a crater, and subsequent injuries and absences from LeBron James and Dennis Schroder sent the Lakers spiraling into seventh place.
On the other side of the ledger, this is about where we expected the Warriors to be after Klay Thompson tore his Achilles in November. The early season saw growing pains as a new cast tried to learn the Steve Kerr system, but they coalesced around an incandescent Stephen Curry season. The Warriors built a top-5 defense around their supernova point guard and made it into the play-in.
These teams faced off three times this year, with the Warriors springing a comeback victory in their first meeting before the Lakers won easily the next two. The teams last played on March 15th, when Anthony Davis was out and James Wiseman was still playing. The Warriors are better without Wiseman as the rookie center went through some growing pains; how will their tight, small-ball rotation hold up with Davis also back in the lineup?
To preview the matchup we will look at a key matchup and three key questions for this Western Conference Play-in Game between two California franchises.