The Los Angeles Lakers (9-2) cruised past the Golden State Warriors (2-10) one hundred twenty-ninety four at Staples Center Wednesday night. What are the expectations for this Lakers squad? Nothing less than an NBA Championship. They now have the elite player that LeBron needs to really compete. Though DeMarcus Cousins suffered one other heartbreaking, season-ending harm, the Lakers have Dwight Howard to fill some of that void. This is the record with the top 50 NBA groups by successful proportion in the regular season.
This is all excellent news for the East. Here’s the bad—and the place the West still would possibly retain the advantage going ahead. On the very high, the West dominates as at all times; in our Ringer rankings, Giannis Antetokounmpo earned the no. 1 spot, but the subsequent six gamers call the Western Conference house. The highest Western teams normally outperform their Jap counterparts for two causes. The primary is that they beat their supposed interconference equals; in every season in the 30-crew period, even 2008-09, when the East received general, the West still received nearly all of matchups between playoff groups.
As a slew of teams race to make the eight playoff spots available in each tables, an excellent computer has predicted the tip-of-season positions of all 30 franchises. 2. The East’s greatest groups are as dominant as the West’s best groups. Spoelstra stated there isn’t a update on Winslow or a timetable. The Warmth are off for three days after Monday’s game. Oklahoma Metropolis, Utah, and New Orleans were seeded based on report in games in opposition to each other (OKC: four-3, UTAH: four-four, NO: three-four).
The Lakers lead the NBA in defensive effectivity. Los Angeles is one in every of two groups which might be giving up fewer than one hundred points per 100 possessions. In the meanwhile, Golden State is shocking everybody however Inexperienced He had a premonition this winning streak would come. In Sport 1, D.J. Augustin hit the game-winning three-point shot with three.four seconds left.
The Warriors won their fourth straight recreation on Friday night time, storming again to defeat the Phoenix Suns , one hundred and five-ninety six, on the Chase Center. Golden State wiped away a 12-level deficit heading into the fourth quarter behind some clutch shooting from Draymond Green and a out of the blue surging defense that has been playing like a high-10 unit in December.