The Los Angeles Lakers began the season in chaos 5 1/2 months ago. They finished it as the Western Conference champions.
Pau Gasol had 22 points, leading MVP candidate Kobe Bryant added 20, and the Lakers beat the short-handed Sacramento Kings 124-101 Tuesday night to clinch the No. 1 seed in the West and home-court advantage throughout the conference playoffs.
“I told the guys to celebrate, have a good time for two days,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “We’re back to business Thursday.”
The Lakers (57-25) begin the playoffs this weekend—most likely Sunday— against Denver or Dallas. It will be the Nuggets unless they beat Memphis and Dallas loses to No. 2 seed New Orleans on Wednesday night. If the Hornets win, they’ll have the same record as the Lakers, but Los Angeles wins the tiebreaker because of a better conference record.
The Lakers enter the playoffs having gone 8-1 to finish the regular season.
“It’s all about momentum,” Bryant said. “You want to be playing your best basketball going into the playoffs, and we feel like we’re doing that so we ended the season exactly where we wanted to.”
