According to Haslem, there are teams like the Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets who pose a bigger challenge to the Thunder right now. UD says the main reason the Lakers have climbed so high in the West team standings is due to injuries and the schedule that allowed the Lakers to sneak into the second seed.

The Lakers won their fourth consecutive game, holding off the Utah Jazz behind 33 points and 11 rebounds from Luka Doncic.

There is an NBA Cup matchup that won’t mean anything for the NBA Cup standings but still counts toward the regular season as the Los Angeles Lakers host the Dallas Mavericks on Friday, Nov. 28 at crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

The Lakers have connected on 48.4% of their 3-pointers in their last two games after starting the season as one of the league’s worst 3-point shooting teams.

Mavs head coach Jason Kidd spoke to reporters right before tipoff, and he provided an important update on Davis’ status for the game. Unsurprisingly, Dallas is going to take a cautious approach to their star big man after his extended spell on the sidelines.