The Los Angeles Lakers clinched the No. 1 seed on Monday and with there being little difference in homecourt advantage considering all the teams are staying together at the Orlando and playing in the same gyms for every game, nobody would blame them if they would relax knowing that they’ll have no control of influencing their playoff position or opponent.
But rather than benching their players, Lakers coach Frank Vogel is planning on playing them in both ends of their upcoming back-to-back, according to Kyle Goon of the Southern California News Group. Vogel’s reasoning is that he believes his team still needs to build strong habits before they get to the postseason.
The Lakers still have five games remaining on their schedule, starting with back-to-back against two strong teams who will be in the playoffs, tomorrow against the Oklahoma City Thunder and then Thursday against the Houston Rockets. With both teams still playing for their playoff seeding, the Lakers will have two good opportunities to get better against a pair of formidable Western Conference foes.
