The Lakers officially qualify for the playoffs: Zhan Huang leads the team to challenge the defending champion in the first round or the Black Seven for the championship?

On April 17, Beijing time, the NBA play-offs officially began, and the Lakers defeated the Pelicans 110-106 away, thus advancing to the playoffs as the 7th in the West, and they will challenge the defending champion Nuggets in the first round.

Although the Lakers are 47-35 and ranked 8th in the West, according to the regulations, they have to play a brutal play-off, away game against the Pelicans, James and thick eyebrows led the team to win the promotion battle, successfully advanced to the playoffs, and also shattered the outside world's claim that the Lakers want to avoid the Nuggets.

The Lakers' playoff record has changed to 3-0, playing the playoffs for the third time in four years and advancing to the playoffs all three times, which is also the 64th time in the history of the Lakers to advance to the playoffs.

Before today's game, Lakers celebrity Magic Johnson tweeted: I hope the Lakers can beat the Pelicans today, retain the seventh position, and then go to play the Nuggets. Although the Lakers were swept by the Nuggets this season, Game 2, 3 and Game 4 were all close. Funnily enough, I've been hearing people say that the Lakers should deliberately lose and then face the winner of the Kings and Warriors, and then face the Thunder. As a true contender, you should always want to win. To be the best, you have to beat the best.

The 39-year-old James has participated in the playoffs for the 17th time in his career, the most active players and tied for the fifth most in history; so far in his career, James has led the team to win four championships and won FMVP four times; this year, James Mei continues to hit the championship, that is, the 18th championship in the history of the Lakers.

This season, James has led the Lakers to win the first midseason championship in history, played in 71 regular season games, played an average of 35.3 minutes per game, and was able to score 25.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, 8.3 assists and 1.3 steals, with a three-point shooting rate of 41% A career high.

The Lakers challenged the defending champion in the first round - in the regular season this season, the Lakers and the Nuggets played three times, with a record of 0 wins and 3 losses - the Lakers lost to the Nuggets 107-119 away in the season opener, lost to the Nuggets 106-114 at home on February 9, and were killed by the Nuggets 114-124 at home on March 3.

Last season, the Lakers not only made a strong counterattack to the playoffs, but also advanced all the way to the Western Conference, but the Lakers were swept 4-0 by the Nuggets in the Western Finals, and finally the Nuggets won the 2023 NBA championship, Jokic was crowned FMVP;