Lakers News: LA's Opponent, Schedule Set For In-Season Tournament Knockout Round

Can the Lakers make history?

Next Tuesday, your Los Angeles Lakers will host the Phoenix Suns in the quarterfinal round of the NBA's inaugural in-season tournament. 

The Lakers joined the Pacers as the first two teams to clinch knockout spots, as last Friday, the two of them finished with perfect 4-0 records in group play. Off of point differential, LA is the West's No. 1 seed, while the Pacers are the East's No. 2 seed, trailing the Milwaukee Bucks. 

The format of the tournament outlines that outside of the group winners in each of the 6 groups across the league, 2 wild card teams also advance to the knockout stage. 

Due to their 3-1 record and +34 point differential, Phoenix is one of those teams, snagging the No. 4 seed in the West. 

This is a pretty rough "reward" for a team who was awarded the top seed after group play, as Phoenix has a better overall record than the Lakers, and, worse, have won 7 in a row. 

While we can look at LA's two victories over Phoenix earlier in the season as telltales of how this game may go, it's key to note that Suns' superstar guard Devin Booker was inactive for both games. 

Since his return on November 15th, Phoenix hasn't lost a game, and Booker hasn't scored fewer than 24 points, and has eclipsed 30 twice and 40 once. 

These teams both share advantages in their own ways against one another, so we'll see how they stack up. Phoenix is weak on the interior, where LeBron James and Anthony Davis thrive. 

Conversely, Phoenix excels offensively on the perimeter, where the Lakers have weak point of attack defense, especially given the injuries to key contributors on that side of the ball (Gabe Vincent, Jarred Vanderbilt, Cam Reddish). 

We'll get a better idea of how to approach this game a day or two before it, as injuries are difficult to predict. LA has been great in the tournament thus far, however, so let's see if they can keep it up. 

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