LA Clippers: Ranking the 3 biggest Western Conference threats

The No. 2 biggest Western Conference threat for the LA Clippers: The Los Angeles Lakers

That is correct, I do not have the Los Angeles Lakers as the top threat to the LA Clippers in the Western Conference.

The reasoning to why the national pundits keep putting the Lakers atop the Western Conference power rankings is reasoning I don’t agree with.

The classic “The Lakers were so injured last year!” take is straight blasphemy. The Lakers did miss Anthony Davis for part of Game 4, Game 5, and most of Game 6 in their playoff series. However, when the Clippers lost Kawhi Leonard for the rest of the postseason after Game 4 of the Western Conference Semis, they responded by winning consecutive games to close out the series in six, and then took the Suns to just as competitive of a series as the Lakers did in the first round.

The Lakers were missing one player, who’s not as good as Leonard, for a game and parts of two others. (Let’s also not forget that Chris Paul, who was better than AD last year, was hurt during the entire series against the Lakers.) The Clippers were missing Leonard for the entire series, Ibaka for the entire series, and Zubac for Games 5 and 6. Enough with the excuses.

Then, the Lakers traded for Russell Westbrook. While Westbrook is a star in this league, this move is going to destroy the Lakers’ court spacing due to his style of play colliding with similar style of play to LeBron James in their offensive philosophies and shot selection.

I’m not afraid of the new-look Lakers, just as no other fans should be.