On April 22, Beijing time, the NBA playoffs continued today, and in the last game of the day, the Thunder relied on Alexander's consecutive 5 points and Holmgren's block at the last moment, and finally narrowly defeated the Pelicans 93-91 and got off to a good start. Interestingly, after the game, the focus was not on these two teams, but on the Lakers.
The reason for this situation is that the Thunder did not play very well in this game, and the performance was very immature, especially the interior allowed Valanciunas to score 13 points while grabbing 20 rebounds, including 9 frontcourt rebounds.
Many Lakers fans unconsciously substituted that if today's game is the Lakers playing the Thunder, then there are thick eyebrows, and it is very likely that the Lakers will win, but the reality is cruel, the Lakers were pressed to the ground by the Nuggets yesterday again.
So, for now, since the invention of the play-offs, the biggest victim has been the Lakers. Not only because the Lakers did not eat the bonus of the play-offs, the Lakers were in the top 8 when they played the play-offs three times, and if there were no play-offs, then the Lakers would have been able to go straight to the playoffs.
This year is even worse, not only playing the play-offs, but also winning (after today's game, there are already many Lakers fans who feel that winning is better than losing), so the first round of the playoffs will face the defending champion, the Nuggets of the Tianke Lakers. Assuming there are no play-offs, the Lakers will not need to play the play-offs this year, and they can also play playoff rookies in the first round of the playoffs.
The Lakers' record against the Thunder in the regular season is 3-1, and with the Lakers having a wealth of playoff experience in the team, the Lakers are very likely to stage the Black Eight Miracle. But all that was lost to the play-offs.