Even if their end-of-season dynamic is very good, the Lakers approach this first round in the costume of the underdog. Because they finally finished only in seventh place, via the “play-in”, and will face the Grizzlies, solid second in the Western Conference.
Now that serious things are beginning, Anthony Davis has nothing to do with labels and rankings.
“I think places don’t matter,” secures the interior at ESPN. “As soon as we are in the playoffs, it is a question of duels. We don’t see ourselves as outsiders, that’s obvious. »
LeBron James, who will start the playoffs away for only the second time in his career, completely agrees with his teammate, even if he wants to be cautious. “There are 16 teams in the playoffs and all have a chance. We come back to 0-0. We play against a good opponent, we respect him. »
But the numbers and history are not going in favor of Californians. Indeed, since 1984 and the 16 teams qualified for the playoffs, only five seeded #7 have eliminated the #2, in 78 occurrences. It only happened in 6% of cases… And since 2003, with the best-of-seven series, the Spurs are the only ones to have achieved this feat, in 2010 against the Mavericks.
“Basically, if you have the energy, if you make the effort and play with urgency, if you are ready to fight, it happens all by itself,” announces Darvin Ham. “We’ve seen playoff teams lose games at home before, so it seems fair. We have a healthy, deep and talented team. »
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| lebron james | 55 | 35.5 | 50.0 | 32.1 | 76.8 | 1.2 | 7.1 | 8.3 | 6.8 | 3.2 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 1.6 | 28.9 |
| Anthony Davis | 56 | 34.0 | 56.3 | 25.7 | 78.4 | 3.5 | 9.1 | 12.5 | 2.6 | 2.2 | 1.1 | 2.0 | 2.6 | 25.9 |
| D’angelo Russell | 17 | 30.9 | 48.4 | 41.4 | 73.5 | 0.4 | 2.5 | 2.9 | 6.1 | 2.3 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 1.4 | 17.4 |
| Russell Westbrook | 52 | 28.7 | 41.7 | 29.6 | 65.5 | 1.1 | 5.0 | 6.2 | 7.5 | 3.5 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 2.3 | 15.9 |
| Austin Reaves | 64 | 28.8 | 52.9 | 39.8 | 86.4 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 3.0 | 3.4 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 13.0 |
| Dennis Schroder | 66 | 30.1 | 41.5 | 32.9 | 85.7 | 0.3 | 2.2 | 2.5 | 4.5 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 2.2 | 12.6 |
| Thomas Bryant | 41 | 21.4 | 65.4 | 44.0 | 74.1 | 1.6 | 5.2 | 6.8 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 1.9 | 12.1 |
| lonnie walker | 56 | 23.2 | 44.8 | 36.5 | 85.8 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 11.7 |
| Malik Beasley | 26 | 23.9 | 39.2 | 35.3 | 61.9 | 0.3 | 3.0 | 3.3 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 11.1 |
| Rui Hachimura | 33 | 22.4 | 48.5 | 29.6 | 72.1 | 1.0 | 3.7 | 4.7 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 9.6 |
| Jarred Vanderbilt | 26 | 24.0 | 52.9 | 30.3 | 78.4 | 1.9 | 4.8 | 6.7 | 1.6 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 2.2 | 7.2 |
| Troy Brown, Jr. | 76 | 24.5 | 43.0 | 38.1 | 87.2 | 0.8 | 3.2 | 4.1 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 7.1 |
| Kendrick Nunn | 39 | 13.5 | 40.6 | 32.5 | 81.0 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 6.7 |
| Patrick Beverly | 45 | 26.9 | 40.2 | 34.8 | 78.0 | 0.5 | 2.6 | 3.1 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 2.8 | 6.4 |
| Wenyen Gabriel | 68 | 15.1 | 59.6 | 27.8 | 61.9 | 1.7 | 2.5 | 4.2 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 2.1 | 5.5 |
| matt ryan | 12 | 10.8 | 30.6 | 37.1 | 80.0 | 0.2 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 3.9 |
| Mohammad Bamba | 9 | 9.8 | 40.7 | 31.3 | 54.5 | 1.2 | 3.3 | 4.6 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 3.7 |
| Max Christie | 41 | 12.5 | 41.5 | 41.9 | 87.5 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 3.1 |
| Juan Toscano Anderson | 30 | 12.2 | 50.0 | 20.0 | 73.3 | 0.5 | 1.6 | 2.0 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 2.7 |
| Damian Jones | 22 | 8.0 | 54.1 | 0.0 | 75.0 | 0.8 | 1.7 | 2.5 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 2.5 |
| Scotty Pippen, Jr. | 6 | 5.3 | 33.3 | 33.3 | 55.6 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 2.3 |
| cole swider | 7 | 5.8 | 33.3 | 37.5 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 1.3 |
| davon reed | 8 | 3.4 | 75.0 | 50.0 | 25.0 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 1.0 |
| Sterling Brown | 4 | 6.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 2.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 |
