On Wednesday night, the Los Angeles Lakers will face the Golden State Warriors in the play-in tournament to decide who becomes the 7th seed in the Western Conference. The Lakers, led by an undoubted hall of Famer Lebron James, finished the season on a five-game win streak at 42 wins and 30 losses. The Curry-led Warriors won 8 of their final ten games, closing the season at 39 wins and 33 losses.

Looking into this you will have the early season MVP Lebron James, and late-season MVP Stephen Curry. King James, as he is affectionately called, is a very huge piece of the puzzle for this Laker team to win a championship. Both players have been a part of dynasties, with Lebron winning 4 championships and Steph winning 3.

It may be a tightly contested game with the form both teams are in, even though both are short-handed without their superstars. Without Lebron, the Lakers would have a losing record, even with Anthony Davis and Dennis Schroeder. Curry averages under 20 PPG against the Lakers in his career, the only team that has him at that average. Without him on the court, or playing at all, the Warriors considerably lose about 28-44 points a night, hence players like Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins would have to pick up the slack.

The struggles both teams and superstars, face were challenging. Lebron injured his ankle and said in an interview that he may not be back to his best again. With Curry, he broke his arm last season and damaged his tail bone in this season. Now both are on the comeback trail, some sooner than others, and are looking to make their team go all the way to the finals.
The Lakers have the better squad no doubt, but the Warriors’ cohesion has become so much better over the last few games. As I stated before this will be tightly contested, maybe a moment of magic from Curry, some slick play by James, or even an unlikely source taking the game to the opponents. I believe the Warriors would win, 113-106, and I am gonna say why. Steve Kerr knows that Schroeder is the person to defend Curry and he will stick tight so Steph might get him into foul trouble and get him off the court.

Draymond will be his regularly aggressive self and go at the out-of-form Andre Drummond. With those key players off the court, more emphasis will be placed on the injured Lebron James and Anthony Davis.The winner takes the 7th seed and the loser goes into the other play-in final against the winner of the other play-in semi. It’s all to play for, Lakers vs. Warriors. Lebron vs. Steph. 7 vs. 8.