Dave McMenamin
Multiple Authors
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick doesn’t know what seed his team will finish with in the Western Conference playoffs standings, with Nos. 3-5 all in play heading into the final weekend of the regular season.
But he does know, with Luka Doncic sidelined with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain and Austin Reaves out with a Grade 2 left oblique muscle injury, no one is going to be afraid of his team.
In fact, Redick believes that the other West teams that still have their seeding to be determined, will prefer L.A. as their first-round opponent.
“I’m sure everybody wants to play us,” Redick said before the Lakers hosted the Phoenix Suns on Friday. “Let’s get that out there, like, everybody wants to play us.”
The Lakers (51-29) were No. 4 in the West coming into Friday night — a game behind the No. 3 Denver Nuggets (52-28); sharing the same record as the No. 5 Houston Rockets (51-29); and four games ahead of the No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves (47-33).
The Lakers hold the tiebreaker over both Denver and Houston, by virtue of winning their season series against both teams. Minnesota, which is locked into No. 6, play the Rockets in Houston on Friday.
Denver hosts the West’s No. 1 team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, on Friday.
While OKC has clinched No. 1 and rested 10 of its players, Denver also sat out seven players — including Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon — on Friday, even though the Nuggets’ seeding is still up in the air.
Without explicitly naming any teams, Redick seemed to allude to Denver’s lineup decision.
“[Teams] are in a position where they can start looking forward to potential second round matchups as well,” Redick added. “We see some of those teams rest their entire lineup basically, so they — we can’t be concerned with all of that.
“Again, I’ll say what I told the team yesterday, what I told you guys after the game, we have to figure out the formula and the belief for this group to be successful. And so that’s our focus for tonight and that’s going to be our focus on Sunday.”
L.A. closes out their schedule at home against the Utah Jazz (21-59). Utah had lost 10 games in a row coming into their matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday.
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