Lakers Secure Critical Victory, Eye High Western Conference Seed

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00:00The Los Angeles Lakers out on the West Coast, a 104-98 victory over the Houston Rockets.

00:05Yesterday, Rockets were on a back-to-back. The Lakers now sit at 46-29 on the season.

00:10LeBron James last night, Mark, logged 38 minutes, going 5-of-12 from the floor

00:15for only 16 points. And Luka Doncic, only 20 points. You say, boy, that's usually a Lakers

00:20loss. How about the bench? Dorian Finney-Smith, 32 minutes and 20 points. You take a look at

00:25Gabe Vincent, 24 minutes and 20 points. The bench comes to the rescue for the Lakers in a victory

00:31yesterday. And a much-needed one. Again, we talked about with the seeds in the Western Conference.

00:38I've said for a couple of weeks now, DRS, that seeding will be critically important

00:43in the Western Conference. The path that you have, again, because there is no reseeding,

00:48the path that you have to the Western Conference Finals will matter, especially for a team like

00:52the Lakers. They need to try to avoid the Oklahoma City Thunder and or the Denver Nuggets until

01:00they get to the Western Conference Finals because they just don't have the size inside

01:04to match up with Jokic or anybody that Oklahoma City puts out there, whether it's Chet Holmgren

01:07or Isaiah Hartenstein. So, plus the Lakers don't play a whole ton of defense and that's usually a

01:13problem against good offensive teams. So, I think the seeding absolutely matters and teams who want

01:19to sort of control their own destiny, yeah, is it worth it for the Lakers to get the three-seed

01:27and then end up having to probably face the Rockets in the semis? And that means Oklahoma

01:32City and Denver would meet up in the Western Conference semis on the other side of the bracket

01:37and you would only end up facing one of them? That's the Lakers' path here, DRS,

01:41if they would like to get to the Western Conference Finals.