Lakers lead 2020-21 NBA Reacts power rankings

Last year, the Los Angeles Lakers went into the season as one of the favorites to win the NBA championship because of their superstar tandem of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. However, they weren’t the favorite to win it all due to concerns over the supporting cast around James and Davis. This year, that’s not the case.

After acquiring the two-leading vote-getters for the 2019-20 Sixth Man of the Year Award, Montrezl Harrell and Dennis Schröder, and a pair of starting-caliber veterans in Marc Gasol and Wesley Matthews, the Lakers are even deeper than they were last season, when they won the championship. That might explain why they led SB Nation’s fan-voted power rankings this week.

Right behind the Lakers are the Milwaukee Bucks despite the fact that it was the Miami Heat who made it out of the Eastern Conference last season. I guess that’s not totally surprising because the Bucks have a two-time MVP on their roster in Giannis Antetokounmpo, and they upgraded at the point guard position with Jrue Holiday, but still; the Heat probably deserve to be higher than No. 5 on this list.

Rounding out the top-five are the LA Clippers and Denver Nuggets, who played each other in the Western Conference semifinals last season. The Clippers finished with a better winning percentage than the Nuggets in the regular season last season, and they looked like the better team in the first four games of the Western Conference semis, but the Nuggets came back from a 3-1 deficit and won the series in seven games.

Will brining up the fact that the Clippers blew a 3-1 lead to the Nuggets ever get old? No, unless they blow a 3-1 lead to another team this season. Given their recent playoff history, that’s not out of the question.

Either way, Lakers in 5.

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