{"id":181648,"date":"2021-02-18T06:06:24","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T03:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/nets-lakers-a-potential-nba-finals-preview\/"},"modified":"2021-02-18T06:06:24","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T03:06:24","slug":"nets-lakers-a-potential-nba-finals-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nets-lakers-a-potential-nba-finals-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"#Nets-Lakers a potential NBA finals preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Nets-Lakers a potential NBA finals preview<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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Listen, we already know one major element will be missing. Anthony Davis will be sitting on the Lakers\u2019 bench in civvies Thursday night, waiting out a calf injury. We\u2019ll find out soon enough if Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant will take part in the festivities, depending on whether they hop onto the layup line.<\/p>\n

And you know something?<\/p>\n

It won\u2019t really matter when the Nets and the Lakers take the floor at Staples Center, because there are some game<\/a>s in the course of a long season that are simply required viewing, even if it\u2019ll take a few extra cups of coffee to make it for the duration, even if the marquee isn\u2019t likely to sparkle as brightly as we\u2019d hoped.<\/p>\n

Thursday night, we get Nets and Lakers for the first of two scheduled games this year and, with a little luck, perhaps as many as nine.<\/p>\n

Neither team will enter with the best record in its respective conference \u2014 out west, that\u2019s still the Jazz, and back east, it\u2019s still the 76ers. But the deeper we get into this season, the more that all feels beside the point. In many ways, these teams are mirror images staring at each other from 3,000 miles away, teams whose regular seasons will be little more than rough drafts of what we\u2019ll see come spring, when things really begin to matter.<\/p>\n

Davis is out for the Lakers, and you have to believe that even if LeBron James is resistant to being monitored by the Minutes Police, there will be games in March and April he\u2019ll be asked to skip. We have already seen that the Nets have little problem forging onward when any of their Big 3 needs a night or two off.<\/p>\n

So maybe that means the Jazz or the Clippers will hit the 72-game tape before the Lakers do. Maybe that means that the Sixers or the Bucks will do that in the East, or that the Celtics will start putting it together. The beauty of the way the Nets and Lakers are built is that they are both seed-proof.<\/p>\n

\"thursday's
Kevin Durant and James Harden could be seeing a lot more of LeBron James and Anthony Davis.<\/figcaption>
Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post; Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Good luck beating LeBron and AD when you really need to.<\/p>\n

Good luck beating KD and Kyrie and James Harden when you really need to, regardless of locale, regardless of how many people are inside a building. Whatever hardships and roadblocks these teams encounter now are designed to make them impervious to such things in May and June. You bet against a Nets-Lakers Finals at your own peril. And that will be all business.<\/p>\n

This? This should be fun, no matter who plays and who doesn\u2019t. Brooklyn versus Los Angeles is a state-of-mind rivalry that exists primarily in the souls and the hearts of older fans born before 1950, who still harbor resentment for the Dodgers skipping town, for Walter O\u2019Malley choosing Chavez Ravine over Flatbush Avenue, and for the heirs of those angst-ridden times. But it\u2019s about to get a brand-new chapter, a basketball chapter.<\/p>\n

That starts Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying the Lakers is obviously a tremendous challenge,\u201d Nets coach Steve Nash said Tuesday night, after the Nets had finished off a thrilling 128-124 comeback win at Phoenix that was probably their most satisfying win of the year, given an early 24-point hole and the absence of Durant and Irving.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know who they have over there. We know how well they\u2019re coached and what they\u2019ve been able to do in the last year or so. So it\u2019s a great test for us. You load the guys up and be ready to go and try to keep getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n

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