Lakers News: Bill Simmons Believes Timberwolves, Grizzlies Matchups Play Into LA's Favor

Advantage Lakers in the Play-In and the first round of playoffs?
Lakers News: Bill Simmons Believes Timberwolves, Grizzlies Matchups Play Into LA's Favor
Lakers News: Bill Simmons Believes Timberwolves, Grizzlies Matchups Play Into LA's Favor /

Your Los Angeles Lakers will look to advance to their third postseason in the last ten years. The purple and gold will look to clinch the seventh seed against the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight and face the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. 

A lot is a stake today, and even though they'd love to win today, they will have another shot at the playoffs for the eighth seed. Regardless, LA must take care of business on Tuesday to snag that seventh seed and get some rest before the playoffs start this weekend. 

Many experts are picking LA to win the play-in game and believe they have a shot at taking out the two-seeded Grizzles in the first round, including sports writer and podcaster Bill Simmons. Simmons released an episode of his "The Bill Simmons Podcast" on Monday and said he loves the Lakers' path to at least the second round considering their first two potential opponents are hobbled. 

"I think the Lakers with a full team are going to be Minnesota in a one-off just because of their experience and how sloppy and weird some of the decisions Minnesota makes are. They have size to throw at them and not having Naz [Reid] and [Rudy] Gobert, and you don't even have the two best guys in the game.

"For the Lakers, it worked out great. Then they get to play Memphis, who doesn't have Steven Adams, Brandon Clarke. I'm still not sold Triple J [Jaren Jackson Jr.] could play 36 minutes in a playoff series because he gets fouls too easily. 

"This lineup is unbelievable for the Lakers. The Lakers pretty easy path to round two for a team that I gave up on."

Nothing is ever easy for the purple and gold, but they are looking at some breaks, especially with the front courts of their opponent tonight and their potential opponent in Memphis. 

We all know about the drama with Minnesota now, and LA will look to exploit that. I'm very superstitious, so I won't focus on the next round until they get there. However,  if they're fortunate enough to win tonight, they will be looking at a depleted front court of the Grizzlies, too. 

LA must take care of its opponent, whether they're fully healthy or not. Hopefully, we're in for a long playoff run. 

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Ricardo Sandoval
RICARDO SANDOVAL

Staff Writer