Lakers Team Rankings

When the 2019-20 regular season was suspended in response to the COVID-19 crisis, the Lakers were a Western-Conference-best 49-14, pitting them first in the standings with a cozy 5.5-game lead.

While we don’t know when, or if, the season will resume, we dug into how the Lakers all but assured themselves the No. 1 seed should we get some postseason hoops to watch.

Below are several categories in which we compared the Lakers to the rest of the NBA with some nuts and bolts on the topic, followed by analysis:

NET RATING: 7.1, 2nd

Nuts and Bolts: Net rating measures a team’s point differential per 100 possessions, and typically, the more a team outscores its opponent, the better that team is. You…