For the first time since they won the NBA Championship in 2020, the Los Angeles Lakers will not have to fight their way through the NBA Play-In Tournament to get into the playoffs.

The Los Angeles Lakers are favored in their first-round playoff series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, but they can't take Anthony Edwards and company lightly. The Timberwolves (49-33) finished only one game behind the Lakers (50-32) in the regular season, although the latter team was 18-10 with Luka Doncic in the lineup.

One of the negative narratives that has dogged LeBron James in recent years is that he doesn't play any defense. There has been a fair amount of truth in that narrative, partly because he has had to conserve his energy on that end of the court as a concession to the insane amount of wear and tear he has accumulated over 22 NBA seasons.