After winning their 17th NBA championship in franchise history last season, the Los Angeles Lakers reloaded their roster with even more talent this past offseason in pursuit of back-to-back titles this year. With the additions of Dennis Schroder, Montrezl Harrell and the recent addition of Andre Drummond, the Lakers have an even better supporting cast than they did a season ago, but they are still waiting for their leaders to be fully healthy. 

Anthony Davis injured his calf mid-February this year and just recently returned on April 22nd, but LeBron James has been out since March 20th with a high ankle sprain. The health of the Lakers two superstars is obviously the biggest storyline in Los Angeles right now and of the most importance for this team. 

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With both Anthony Davis and LeBron James out of the lineup dealing with injuries, the Lakers went 7-9 and due to their struggles, they have fallen to the 5-seed in the Western Conference. With 12 games left on their schedule, it seems like they will not be a Top-4 team in the Western Conference playoff picture, but they could potentially fall even further down in the standings! 

The Mavericks are just 1.5 games back from the Lakers after beating them in back-to-back games and the Portland Trail Blazers are just 2.5 games back from Los Angeles! The Lakers desperately need to get healthy sooner than later, but injuries are not the only challenge this team will face in their pursuit of back-to-back titles. 

Assuming the Lakers are fully healthy for their playoff run, let’s take a look at the three biggest challengers to the Lakers chance of winning yet another title this year in the postseason!