Shaq Predicts The Lakers Will Beat The Suns In The Playoffs If They Get The 8-Seed

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The 2021-22 season has not been kind to the Los Angeles Lakers. After losing to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night, Los Angeles fell to 31-42 on the year, putting them in ninth place in the Western Conference. They’re currently two games ahead of the 11th-seed San Antonio Spurs, and while they’re in a play-in spot right now, the possibility of them missing the postseason altogether is very real.

Still, it’s not all bad for the Lakers. They still have LeBron James, which has historically been a pretty good way to win games in the playoffs, and Anthony Davis is expected to return from a foot sprain sometime soon. That second thing, in particular, has one Laker legend believing they’d take down the best team in basketball if they met up in the playoffs.

“I’m disappointed in my Lakers, a lot of people are,” Shaq said on The Big Podcast with Shaq. “We all forgot about their ages. ‘Ooh, Westbrook’s comin’, ooh, they got Carmelo,’ like, we’re used to having teams with big-name stars on them. So, you got a team with three Hall of Famers, you would think they’d be in six or seven, and then AD’s not playing. So, I doubt they even make the play-in game.

“But if they do, they have to win, and they will face Phoenix in the first round,” Shaq continued. “And then, if they make it to the eight spot, they will beat Phoenix.”

Shaq believes that the return of Davis will be the thing that pushes the Lakers over the top, and while he concedes that “Westbrook’s been playing bad,” he is holding out hope.

“All it takes is for certain people like that to just play good one or two games and then it snaps right back,” he said.

With nine games left in their regular season, it’d take quite the turn of events for the Lakers to catch up to the Clippers, which have a 4.5-game lead on the 8-seed and have the tiebreaker between the two teams. As such, the overwhelming likelihood is that Los Angeles’ path to the playoffs would require winning the 9/10 game, then beating the loser of the 7/8 game, then beating a Suns team that bounced them last postseason four times in seven games. It would be quite the turn of events if they could pull this off, but at least Shaq is optimistic.

Source: https://uproxx.com/dimemag/shaq-predicts-lakers-beat-suns-playoffs-video/

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