Lakers News: ESPN Experts Split On LA-Denver Western Conference Finals Rematch

How the Worldwide Leader in Sports feels about the Lake Show's chances.

Your Los Angeles Lakers are heading to Denver to face off against the West's No. 1 seeded Nuggets tomorrow night.

17 ESPN experts were polled about their picks in the impending showdown. The seventh-seeded Los Angeles, as it has been throughout these playoffs, is an underdog by record. 

These Nuggets are a significantly healthier and more collected club than the Memphis Grizzlies, whom LA dispatched in the first round, and are significantly bigger than the small-ball oriented Golden State Warriors, whom the Lakers booted from the playoffs in the second round.

ESPN's pundits, unsurprisingly, mostly picked Denver to best LA and advance to the NBA Finals. But six brave souls voted for Los Angeles to beat the odds yet again. Israel Gutierrez, André Snellings, Marc Spears, and Omar Raja had the Lakers winning in seven games, while Los Angeles-based beat reporters Ramona Shelburne and Dave McMenamin both picked LA in six.

That's not to say that the other 11 ESPN reporters who chose Denver to win the series thought the Lakers would be pushovers. Everyone predicted Los Angeles to push the Nuggets to at least six games.

Whatever happens, there are multiple basketball immortals involved in a showdown on one of the NBA's highest levels of competition. Let's hope for a healthy, hard-fought matchup.

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