Shaquille O’Neal on Lakers’ Top-4 Hopes: “They Do Not Want Phoenix or Golden State in the First Round”

Shaquille O’Neal backs up on Charles Barkley’s view on Lakers in the post-game show ‘NBA on TNT’. Shaq has legit justification on the Lakers to position four or five. The team really doesn’t want to be positioned seventh or such a spot that comes to bottleneck situation during playoff time.

On Tuesday night, the Los Angeles Lakers delivered their most dominant performance of the season against Boston, routing the Celtics 117-102.

Shaquille O’Neal belief in Lakers

Shaq thinks the Suns and the Warriors’ squads are better than any other teams out at present. Subsequently, the push is on for his former team. The Los Angeles Lakers’ Frank Vogel will be as eager as any to see an improvement in form, having been under a lot of pressure this season.

He said, “They do not want Phoenix or golden state in the first round”. So, the Lakers will undoubtedly turn their course of the game from tonight.

The retired NBA player who turned TNT analyst, Shaq is expecting to turn their season around after their win against the Celtics. But yet another player, Anthony Davis was criticized by these analysts for not being a go-to guy.

Shaq recalls a few successful moves with AD and Kobe playing 1-2 offense. When Anthony Davis is on, everyone knows what he’s capable of. He just has to figure it out quickly.

In addition, LeBron James in his second game back since being in the NBA’s health and safety protocol; led the Lakers with 30 points. The four-time NBA MVP, James, has had a tough season for game time due to health protocols. Yet, the offensive strategy from him tallied with all the earlier absences owing to injury.

This is definitely something worth keeping an eye on as the season progresses. If the Lakers can secure one of those top four seeds, it will give them a much easier path to the NBA Finals.

And who knows? They may even be able to take down one of those teams en route to winning it all. It will certainly be interesting to see how things play out.

The Lakers are currently in sixth place in the Western Conference, and they are just one game ahead of the first-place Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors.

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