A 116-97 game made the Warriors completely desperate! The Lakers counterattacked, and the Western Conference playoff pattern changed dramatically
On April 7, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, and the Lakers defeated the Cavaliers 116-97 at home, winning four consecutive victories. The Lakers did not drop the chain this time, and when the competitors sent warmth, they did not miss the opportunity, and with this big victory, they went directly to the eighth position in the West, which also changed the competition pattern of the Western Conference play-offs again.
In the previous game day, the Lakers' main rivals lost one after another, which gave them a chance to break into the top eight in the West. The Cavaliers once overtook the score in the third quarter, but the Lakers immediately responded with a wave of 19-0 offensive, directly opened the difference, and laid the victory, after which the Lakers completely took the initiative on the court, did not give the opponent any chance to counterattack, and finally won a 19-point victory, and directly rushed to the eighth position in the West after 4 consecutive wins.
During this period, the Lakers' momentum was very hot, with nine wins in the last 10 games, and their record came to 45-33, surpassing the Kings to eighth, and 1.5 wins away from the sixth-place Suns. And the result of this game also made the Warriors completely desperate, and the possibility of surpassing the Lakers was very small, and they were already 2.5 wins behind, even if they won the opponent in the next direct conversation, they could not achieve overtaking. The Warriors are likely to play the play-in tournament as 10th this season, but the opponent is still determined to be who it is.
When the Kings and Pelicans in front of them lost one after another, the Lakers did not miss the opportunity, continuing the hot momentum of this period and directly rushing to the eighth place in the West. It should be noted that the Lakers will not be satisfied with this, and they are only 1.5 wins away from the possibility of a top-six finish. Davis said after the game: "Keep accumulating, persevere, and play game by game!" and James's side ran back to the locker room before the game was over, probably wanting to heal quickly, after all, it was a difficult matchup against the Timberwolves back-to-back.
With this wave of super counterattack by the Lakers, the play-off pattern in the West has also changed greatly, and now it is really uncertain which teams will appear in the play-offs, at least the Lakers see the possibility of leaving. With such a fierce competition, the league is still happy to see that the last few games will be reduced to the performance time of the bench players compared to the previous early locking of the position, but now only the Celtics have one team to lock the position, and other teams need to strive to win every game to get a good ranking.