In most NBA seasons, there are a couple of teams that are clear favorites over the rest of the field. More often than not, those teams make the NBA Finals or get very close. At first glance, this would seem to be another one of those years, as the Oklahoma City Thunder and Cleveland Cavaliers have run away from the rest of the league. Seeing as how those two teams are unproven in the playoffs, however, means that the race for the Larry O'Brien trophy could be more wide open than it appears.
One team with championship aspirations is the Los Angeles Lakers. They have LeBron James, a guy that's made the Finals 10 times, so don't act shocked. LeBron's presence alone is usually enough to make any team a contender, but if Lakers fans are being honest with themselves, they didn't really feel that way at the beginning of the season.
The Lake Sho was breaking in a first-time coach in JJ Redick, and they returned largely the same roster that had meekly gone out in a five-game first-round series to the Denver Nuggets the year before.
Sam Presti of the Thunder deserves all his flowers for constructing a roster that can dominate now and has the assets to be great for the next half-decade at least, but I'll go on record and say that if Rob Pelinka doesn't win Executive of the Year, not only for landing Luka Dončić, but also for his shrewd acquisition of Dorian Finney-Smith, there needs to be an investigation from the league office.
This Lakers team is nearly unrecognizable from the one that broke training camp. Now they very much are a contender, one that's tied with the Warriors for the fourth-best title odds according to FanDuel, behind only the Thunder, Celtics and Cavs.
The fact that the Lakers have emerged from the Western Conference logjam to nearly have the No. 3 seed locked up shows that they're playing well at the right time, but which players are primarily responsible, and who, if anyone, needs to up their game in the playoffs? Today we're looking at two who are trending in the right direction and one who isn't. Let's get into it.
Luka Dončić is shifting into playoff mode, and that's a good thing for the Lakers
The reason the Lakers are championship contenders and not postseason afterthoughts is the presence of Luka Dončić, full stop. Never before has a team been able to add a top-five player in the league at the trade deadline, but that's exactly what the Lakers did.
Dončić has had his ups and downs since giving up Maverick blue for purple and gold, but there's been a lot more good than bad since he joined the Lakers. He started slowly by averaging 21 points per game in February on some pretty rough shooting splits, but since then he's looked like the guy that has already made First Team All-NBA five times.
Dončić averaged more than 30 points in March, and he's been even better in April, despite starting the month with a rare 6-17, 19-point off-night against the Warriors.
Dončić is playing his best ball of the season at just the right time. He whipped the Thunder and their swarming defense for 30 points on Sunday, handing OKC by far their worst home loss of the season. He was on pace for a similar line in the rematch two days later before being mistakenly given a technical foul, which resulted in his ejection. It's no coincidence that the Lakers went from having a one-point lead with Dončić to losing by 16 without him.
He immediately bounced back the next night in what will likely be the most emotional game he'll ever play, his first game back in Dallas since being traded. Most players would have had trouble compartmentalizing the emotions of that situation, but Dončić's killer instinct took over and he scored 45 points to lead the Lakers to a big win.
Dončić showed last postseason that he's capable of carrying a team to the Finals. On the Lakers, he has a lot more help. If he can play like he has, nobody is going to want to face this team.
LeBron James is ramping up his offensive aggression at just the right time
After hanging up 65 points in two early March games against the Knicks and Clippers, it was an uncharacteristically down month for LeBron, and it was reflected in the Lakers' record as they went just 3-4 in games he played.
In those seven games, "The King" averaged under 20 points per game, a practically unheard-of stretch for the NBA's all-time scoring leader. Much of that can be attributed to the groin strain he suffered against the Celtics that kept him out for some time and slowed him in his return, but still, it wasn't comforting to Lakers fans to know that their 40-year-old superstar was physically compromised so late in the season.
As he's done his entire career, LeBron has exceeded expectations in April, and in doing so has put fears over his health status to bed. His scoring average has jumped up to 26.8 this month, and other than the first OKC game when he was efficient but took a backseat to Dončić and Austin Reaves, he's scored 27 or more in every game this month.
That's good news for the Lakers' chances, but what's even better is that James has kicked his aggression into overdrive by taking the ball to the basket more than he has all season. That's resulted in him shooting 6.6 free throws per game this month, his highest total of the season, and he's even making them at a gaudy 87.9 rate.
A 40-year-old has never put an NBA team on his back and carried it to a championship. With LeBron playing the way he is and Luka in fine form, the Lakers have a 1-2 punch that nobody else can match.
Jaxson Hayes has made it clear that the Lakers still have a hole at center
One of the unexpected results of the Luka-Anthony Davis trade was that the Lakers somehow improved on defense without their five-time All-Defensive Team center. L.A. had been improving in that area since trading for Dorian Finney-Smith in December and welcoming back Jarred Vanderbilt in January, but they somehow continued to make gains after swapping AD for Luka.
Dončić isn't exactly known for his defensive prowess, and losing Davis' rim protection was reasonably expected to do a number on the Lakers' defense in the paint. Jaxson Hayes stepped up in a big way though, and for a while at least, the defense continued to unexpectedly improve. It even carried the team as Luka struggled with his shot.
Hayes averaged 1.3 blocks and 1.0 steals per game in February. Both totals are his best in any month this season. Since then they've been slashed to .8 and .5, respectively.
Those stocks may not sound like a lot, and they pale in comparison to what AD was capable of, but they're representative of the value Hayes has brought to the team. Hayes and the Lakers held seven straight teams to 102 points or fewer, arguably the most impressive defensive stretch that any team has put together this season. Since the final game of that streak on March 2, they've done it four times, total.
The Lakers seem to know that Hayes' effectiveness is waning. He's played just over 18 minutes per game this month, way down from the nearly 23 he played the past two months.
Rob Pelinka tried to trade for Hornets center Mark Williams to fill in the void left by Davis, but ended up rescinding the deal after Williams failed a physical. Hayes' play in the immediate aftermath made that look like a smart move, but it's now clear that this team needs a better option at center.
Pelinka won't be able to address that problem until the offseason, and Lakers fans need to hope that it doesn't come back to bite the team in the playoffs.