No NBA play-in entrant has ever won a first-round series and most have been dismissed in five games or less, but this matchup could change that.
So far this spring, the Lakers have hung their hats on resiliency. After falling behind by 15 points to a drastically short-handed Minnesota Timberwolves team on Tuesday, and finally winning in overtime to advance beyond the play-in round for the second time in three years, much was made of the self-imposed struggles they’ve overcome to get here.
In one sense the task is steeper when the No. 7 seed Lakers face the No. 2 seed Memphis Grizzlies, beginning with Game 1 on Sunday afternoon in Memphis. In the three previous years of play-in games, no team getting out of that preliminary round has won its first-round series – and of the nine series, only three have reached as many as six games and none have gone seven.
Those Lakers finished 42-30 in a truncated schedule, were the defending champs and were actually favored against the Suns, their low seed having a lot to do with LeBron James missing 27 games to injury and Davis missing 36.
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