SIM SZN In Review: Where the Lakers stand going into the postseason

After some time away, we’re back with our simulation of the Lakers’ season on NBA 2K20 just in time for the postseason.

The Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up their regular season on Wednesday with a comfortable win over the Phoenix Suns. With a win on Wednesday, the Lakers finished the regular season with a record of 63-19, which isn’t only the best record in the Western Conference — it’s their best regular season record since the 2008-09 season, when they won 65 games under Phil Jackson.

LeBron James ended his season as the league-leader in assists per game (10.2) for the first time in his 17-year career, and he led the Lakers in points per gamer, narrowly edging out Anthony Davis (26.1). Here’s the full list of the Lakers’ statistical season leaders:

PTS: LeBron James, 26.9 PPG

AST: LeBron James, 10.2 APG

TRB: Anthony Davis, 10.1 RPG

BLK: Anthony Davis, 2.1 BPG

STL: Anthony Davis, 1.5 SPG

FG%: Dwight Howard, 68.8%

3P%: Kenatavious Caldwell-Pope, 39.30%

Unsurprisingly, James and Davis led the Lakers in most categories, but despite them being the two best players on the best team in the Western Conference, neither of them won a regular season award. James finished second in MVP voting behind Giannis Antetokounmpo, while Davis finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting behind Kawhi Leonard and Rudy Gobert.

James and Davis did make All-NBA and All-Defensive teams, though. James made the All-NBA First Team with Antetokounmpo, James Harden, Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic, and he was voted onto the All-Defensive Second Team. The last time James made an All-Defensive team was 2014. Davis didn’t make the All-NBA First Team, but he did make the All-Defensive First Team for the second time in his career.

The last notable snub from the season awards was Frank Vogel. Vogel lost the Coach of the Year award to Mike Budenholzer, who led the Bucks to a 64-18 record. While it’s true that he Bucks finished with a better record than the Lakers, they did so with most of their team from last season. Vogel got a group of players that had never played together to buy in to his defense-first mentality within the span of a season, and, for that reasons, probably deserved the nod over Bud.

The Lakers will play the No. 8 seed Memphis Grizzles in the first round of the playoffs. The Lakers beat the Grizzlies 3-1 in the regular season series — we’ll see if they can make it 4-0 in the postseason.

Here’s the full playoff bracket:

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