The Clippers and Lakers Can No Longer Face Each Other In First Round

The Battle of LA won't happen in the first round.

Farbod Esnaashari | May 15, 2021

The Clippers and Lakers Can No Longer Face Each Other In First Round /

The LA Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers can no longer face off in the first round of the Western Conference Playoffs.

This particular situation could only have happened after numerous games were decided in a certain way: The Clippers had to lose to the Rockets, the Mavericks had to beat the Raptors, and the Nuggets had to beat the Pistons. All three of those happened, so now the Clippers and Lakers can officially no longer face each other in the first round of the playoffs.

The only opponents the Clippers can face in the first round of the playoffs are now either the Dallas Mavericks or the Portland Trail Blazers. For the Los Angeles Lakers, things become far more difficult. Not only do they have to win out, but now they have to hope the Denver Nuggets don't deliberately lose against the Portland Trail Blazers. If the Nuggets beat the Blazers, they could get the lakers in the first round. If the Nuggets lose to the Blazers, they could drop to the 4th seed and let the Clippers face the Blazers in the first round.

All of this sounds a bit complicated, but basically, the Clippers can't face the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs anymore. Hopefully, this allows Clippers head coach Ty Lue to figure out his playoff matches a bit better now that it's narrowed down. The Battle of LA will have to wait for now.

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