By Don Wanlass
Contributing Writer
A year ago this time, the Lakers were still scrambling for a spot in the NBA Playoffs.
The Lakers rode their late-season momentum all the way to the Western Conference finals, where they were swept by the Denver Nuggets, who went on to win the NBA title.
The Lakers are hoping for a similar post-season run this year, but I wouldn’t count on it. The Lakers had plenty of momentum going into the playoffs last season.
Over the last two months of the regular season, they had the best record in the league. They won nine of their last 11 games.
With two games left in this season, the Lakers are 7-3 in their last 10 games, but they have lost the last two. The 134-120 loss to Golden State April 9 at Crypto.com Arena hurt the most.
A win over the Warriors would have given the Lakers a 2½- game lead over the Warriors and put then within half a game of the Phoenix Suns for seventh place in the Western Conference.
Now, the Lakers could find themselves playing the Warriors on the road when the play-in tournament starts April 16.
The back-to-back losses to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State show how much Anthony Davis means to this Lakers team.
Davis played only 12 minutes against the Timberwolves (LeBron James missed the game with the flu) after getting poked in the eye. He missed the Golden State game entirely with flu-like symptoms.
Without him, the Lakers aren’t the same team. Lacking Davis’ defensive presence, the Lakers chose to let Golden State live or die at the three-point line. The Warriors thrived, making 26 of 41, a 63.4% clip.
Draymond Green, not noted for his three-point shooting, hit five of six from long range. The Lakers trailed by 11 at halftime and every time they started to close the gap, the Warriors hit another bomb from outside.
That means the Lakers can win their last two games against the Memphis Grizzlies April 12 and the New Orleans Pelicans April 14 and still fall into the 10th spot in the Western Conference, which would mean they would open the play-in tournament April 16 at Golden State.
If nothing else, the Lakers want to host that play-in tournament game.
For those who don’t remember how the play-in tournament works, the ninth and 10th place teams in each conference play each other on the home court of the ninth-place team and the seventh and eighth place teams play on the home court of the seventh place team.
The winner of the game between the seventh and eighth place teams becomes the seventh seed in the conference. The loser plays the winner of the ninth and 10th place games.
The winner of that third game becomes the eighth seed.
The Lakers know what it takes to maneuver through the playoffs. They just need to get there with a healthy Davis and James.
They have solidified their bench in recent weeks as Gabe Vincent and Cam Reddish have both recovered from injuries and Spencer Dinwiddie, a trade-deadline acquisition has acclimated himself to the team.
Denver remains formidable and Minnesota will be tough if Karl Anthony Towns can recover from knee surgery, but the Lakers are capable of putting another run together.
The Clippers, on the other hand, know they will be in the playoffs. Their 105-92 win over the Phoenix Suns April 9 assured them a spot in the Western Conference playoffs.
The Clippers are currently fourth in the conference, two games ahead of the Dallas Mavericks with three games to play. Odds are the Clippers will be hosting the Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs.
The next round probably would be against either the Minnesota Timberwolves or Denver Nuggets, depending on which team wins the West. That won’t be good for the Clippers.
Also not good for the Clippers is the fact that both Kawhi Leonard and James Harden missed the game against Phoenix, Leonard with a sore knee; Harden with a sore foot.
Hopefully, those were both cases of load management because the Clippers won’t escape the first round of the playoffs without a healthy Leonard and Harden.
Russell Westbrook rode to the rescue against Phoenix, recording the 199th triple double of his career.
The chances of either local team having a long playoff run this season don’t appear to be likely, but who knows. Right now getting there is the important thing.
FIRST SNAG: The Dodgers have survived losing their first series of the season, rebounding after going 1-2 in Wrigley Field April 5-7 to win two games against the Minnesota Twins the next two days.
Since the Dodgers goal is to win every series, this marks the first setback of the 2024 season that all their fans think (hope?) will end with a victory parade in downtown Los Angeles next November.
The Dodgers were one of the first two teams to win 10 games this season, though the Yankees did it in two fewer games. But the first two weeks of the season have revealed some holes in a team that many consider to be invincible.
Through the first two weeks of the season, the infield defense has some serious issues, especially when Mookie Betts is playing shortstop. The bottom of the batting order also has more holes than a pound of Swiss cheese. Gavin Lux is an issue both ways.
The Dodgers moved Betts to shortstop because Lux was having trouble there and the team wanted to keep Lux’s bat in the lineup. Lux is playing a little better defensively at second base, but he is hitting only .179 with no home runs and 1 run batted in in his first 11 games of the season.
He hasn’t made an error yet in the field, but Betts and third baseman Max Muncy have committed four of the nine errors the Dodgers have committed so far this season.
Offensively, the Dodgers lead the National League in home runs with 19, but only five have come from the bottom three in the order and two of those belong to Miguel Rojas, who doesn’t play every day.
The Dodgers also lead the National League in strikeouts, whiffing 142 times, almost 13 times a game. Only Betts, Freddie Freeman, Shohei Ohtani and Will Smith have more hits than strikeouts.
Fortunately, the pitching has been able to withstand the offensive and defensive woes.
Tyler Glasnow, in particular, has been outstanding. In four starts, he is 3-0 with a 2.25 earned run average and 29 strikeouts in 24 innings. He struck out 14 Minnesota Twins in seven shutout innings April 9 in a game the Dodgers won 6-3. The three runs came on three solo home runs given up by the bullpen.
At 10-4, the Dodgers are already four games ahead of their closest pursuer in the National League West, and Walker Buehler is about ready to rejoin the starting rotation.
Whatever weaknesses the Dodgers have at this time, the top of the batting order will be able to overcome most of the time. Will Smith is hitting .400, Betts is hitting .380 and Freeman and Ohtani are both hitting .333. Combined they have 10 home runs and 39 runs batted in.
As they go, so will go the Dodgers this season.
FINAL FOUR REVIEW: The college basketball season has ended with two worthy champions, the University of Connecticut in the men’s tournament and the University of South Carolina in the women’s tournament.
Both champions withstood a rough start in the championship game and then just wore out their opponent, leaving little doubt as to who was the best team. Yet, both championship games left little doubt who the best players were in the college game this year, even though both of those players ended up on the losing end of the final game.
As she did all season, Caitlyn Clark led her Iowa team in the championship game, finishing with 30 points in the 87-75 loss to South Carolina. Clark led Iowa to a 27-20 lead after the first quarter, but Iowa scored only 48 points the rest of the game.
Kamilla Cardoso led South Carolina with 15 points and 17 rebounds, with Tessa Johnson coming off the bench to score 19 points.
South Carolina got 37 points from its bench players. No one scored off the bench from Iowa.
Nevertheless, it was a good season for women’s college basketball. The women’s championship game drew four million more television viewers than the men’s game.
That would have been unheard of prior to this season. The women’s game has become more compelling because the women stay in college longer than the men do. Clark, Cardoso, Angel Reese of Louisiana State and freshmen sensation JuJu Watkins from USC welcomed the spotlight and made new fans for the women’s game.
Zach Edey, who scored 37 points and hauled down 10 rebounds for Purdue in the loss to UConn in the men’s championship game, was the biggest name (and body) in men’s college basketball this season.
The Wooden Award winner last season, Edey came back for his senior year to improve his draft position. He has some weaknesses, but he showed this year he could be an inside force and can help a lot of NBA teams as a rebounder and rim protector with a shooting touch around the basket.
The men’s college game has some issues as the game adjusts to name, image and likeness and the transfer portal and the problems those things create. The women’s game doesn’t seem to be affected the same way.
The women’s game also has the biggest stars at the moment. That could be because the WNBA requires players to be at least 22 or have completed their college eligibility or be four years removed from high school to be eligible for the league.
The NBA requires its players to be at least 19 and a year out of high school.
JuJu Watkins can’t go the WNBA after her freshman year at USC, even though she is more ready for that league than her USC classmate Bronny James is for the NBA.
But James is keeping his options open for next year, declaring for the NBA Draft and entering the transfer portal after a so-so freshman year at USC.
Watkins will concentrate on getting USC back to the women’s tournament next year. The women’s game is better for it.
