Podcast: The Lakers beat Houston, but the play-in likely awaits

The Lakers beat the Rockets Wednesday in a game that was more noteworthy for what happened before the matchup — the unveiling of the team’s 17th championship banner — than what actually happened during the 48 minutes.

Credit to Houston for requiring a Kyle Kuzma game-winner before finally capitulating, but this contest wasn’t exactly appointment viewing. As a result, on the latest episode of the Silver Screen & Roll podcast, your hosts Jas Kang and Sabreena Merchant are far more interested in looking ahead to the postseason than discussing Kelly Olynyk’s personal revenge game against the Lakers.

Jas and Sabreena start by discussing the increasing likelihood that the Lakers will end up in the seventh seed, a fate that was essentially locked in after Portland beat Utah earlier Wednesday. They get into whether the play-in will ultimately be good or bad for the Lakers based on their current health situation and also argue for which of the two top seeds would be a better matchup for the Lakers.

They then take a broader look at the Western Conference and talk about which teams other than the Jazz and the Suns could present the Lakers some problems before assigning some odds for the Lakers to repeat altogether. Jas and Sabreena have wildly different opinions about the state of the contenders around the league, as well as who the Lakers would fare best against, so it’s an interesting give-and-take.

You can listen to the full episode below, and to make sure you never miss a show, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.

You can follow Jas on Twitter at @jaskang21 and Sabreena at @sabreenajm.