After missing out play-offs for the past six seasons, Lakers clinched No 1 seed in the Western Conference after defeating Utah Jazz 116 -108 on Monday night here in Orlando.
Since all the remaining seeding games and play-off will take place inside the NBA bubble, no.1 seed will not give them any advantage with respective to Home court. But it has huge implications on play-off bracket and match-ups in a tough Western Conference.
The Last time when Lakers clinched No.1 seed in 2010, they went on to win Championship, led by Kobe Bryant.
Once again Super-star duo LeBron and AD carried much of Lakers offense.Anthony Davis had a monster night on both ends of the floor. He finished game with 42 PTS, 12 REB, 4 AST and 3 stl on 13-28 shooting and made so many important stops on the defensive end. This will be AD’s fifth 40- point game for this year.
LeBron once again just missed Triple-double with a 28 PTS ,9 AST, 8 REB and 2 STL stat line for the night. KCP scored 10 points along with 4 REB and Dwight Howard is the main contributor of the bench with 11 points and 5 rebounds.
Lakers finished the night with 51-15 record with just five seeding game left before play-offs. Frank Vogel and his coaching staff needs to monitor LeBron and AD minutes for the remaining games and likes of Morris,Cook and Dudley needs more playing to be in shape before play-offs.
LeBron and AD, talking to Spectrum SportsNet Lakers Reporter Mike Trudell after the game.
For Jazz, All-stars Mitchell, Conley and Rudy Gobert had a good game. Mitchell led Jazz in points with 33 Points performance along with 5 Rebounds. Conley scored 24 PTS and dished 8 Assists. Gobert picked up another double-double with 16 PTS and 13 Rebounds.
With tonight’s loss, Jazz stands in 5th place in the standings with 42-25 record. Just only 4 games differentiating No. 2 seed Clippers and No.6 seed OKC Thunder, remaining 5 games will play big role for Jazz to find out their first-round play-off opponent.
AD talking to ESPN reporter Rachel Nichols about Kobe
