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Alexander: Will anyone – Lakers, Kings or Ducks – get past the 1st round?

April 18, 2026

The world according to Jim:

• So, what are the chances that the Kings might outlast the Lakers in their respective playoff series beginning this weekend? …

• We know the Lakers are up against it: Without two of their stars, they’re depending on 41-year-old LeBron James to keep dipping into the Fountain of Youth to get his teammates to the next round, or at least deep enough in the series that Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves could make Willis Reed-type comebacks.

And if you don’t get that reference, Google “Willis Reed 1970 NBA Finals.” Those who do remember it also recall that the Lakers were on the business end of that moment. …

• There is this in the Lakers’ favor: The NBA tends to prefer drawn-out series for TV/streaming purposes. The first four games in the Lakers-Rockets series will take nine days, with multiple off days between games 1, 2 and 3. If it goes seven games, the series will take 16 days.

Will that be enough time for Doncic and/or Reaves to get healthy? And can the Lakers – severely overmatched when it comes to defense and rebounding if the regular-season stats are any indication – hang around long enough to get them back? …

• Meanwhile, the Kings get to face Presidents’ Trophy winner Colorado in their first round beginning Sunday afternoon. And as soon as the Kings’ loss in Calgary on Thursday night was finalized, color analyst Jim Fox reminded us all that the Kings were a No. 8 seed and barely snuck into the playoffs in 2012, too.

That season ended with Dustin Brown lifting the Stanley Cup. Somehow, even with the Kings on a hot streak toward the end of the regular season and a new voice behind the bench in D.J. Smith, I don’t see Anze Kopitar lifting the Cup as his final act in a Kings sweater. …

• Still, it’s great to see the acknowledgement opposing players have given Kopitar on his final tour of the league. These guys might try to beat the bejabbers out of each other between the whistles – and, OK, sometimes with a shove or an elbow after the whistle – but this is a reminder that they respect the game and those who play it correctly. …

• Kings fans do have this to look forward to down the road: Kopitar and Jonathan Quick both having their numbers hung from the rafters, and both going into the Hockey Hall of Fame. There’s a mandatory three-year waiting period – though it has been waived in special cases –so they’ll both be eligible for the class of November, 2029. …

• And here’s a few words of encouragement for the rest of the NHL field: Colorado won the Presidents’ Trophy with a 55-16-11 record and 121 points. But of the last 25 years that a Stanley Cup champion was decided – remember, with the 2005 work stoppage there was no Cup winner – only four winners of the regular-season trophy also won the Cup, and none since Chicago in 2013. …

• More pertinent: In the last decade, three Presidents’ Trophy winners captured the Cup the next season. …

• Meanwhile, the Ducks get their first-round shot at Edmonton, after the Kings flunked their attempts to knock off the Oilers the past four years. Getting to the playoffs was a positive for the Ducks, since it had been since 2018 that they last reached the postseason. But a 1-9-1 stretch as December turned into January was a painful education, and their recent 1-6-2 stretch before winning at Nashville on Thursday could be a danger sign, too. Still, this season was progress. …

• The NHL standings seem like an example of grade inflation, thanks to all of the points handed out for overtime losses. Wouldn’t it be a truer indication of a team’s performance to go back to the old system of two points for a win, one for a tie, nothing for a loss? (In other words, no pity points.)

You can look at hockeyreference.com, under the “regulation record” column on the standings page, to see what the records might look like under the old system. It reveals that both the Ducks (26-33-23) and Kings (22-27-23) had sub-.500 seasons – and, in fact, only five of the 16 teams in the Western Conference had winning records. …

• Today’s quiz is an Olympic question (since it doesn’t look like we’re giving back the 2028 Games): When the Olympics were last here in ’84, one significant L.A. sports figure received a standing ovation and another was booed loudly. Who were they? Answer below. …

• Mike Breen was right. The regular-season TV voice of the Knicks, as well as ABC and ESPN’s main play-by-play hoops voice, recently noted that the NBA’s awarding of first-round video rights to Prime Video, which basically took the early round away from local broadcasters, was a disservice to fans.

“I personally think it’s a poor decision,” he said. “Fans want to hear their teams’ announcers, at least in the first round. Because, for so many of us, and all of my favorite teams growing up, the home team announcers, they become part of the family, such a big part of why you root for the team. … Now I get it, that the networks pay a fortune to get exclusivity. Obviously, I work for one of the networks, and it’s important for them. But I just think the fans deserve to be thrown a bone once in a while.” …

• Maybe that phrase should be top of mind for every employee of every league, not just the NBA: “The fans deserve to be thrown a bone once in a while.” …

• Laker fans at least get something of a break. Of the first four games against the Rockets, Game 1 is on ABC on Saturday night and Games 2 and 4 are on NBC and Peacock. No hometown announcers, but no need to subscribe to Prime if you haven’t already done so until Game 3 next Friday. …

• Speaking of hometown announcers, NBC’s incorporation of local color analysts on its Sunday national baseball games is receiving flak from national columnists for some reason, but I think it’s a great idea. ESPN did the same with its Dodgers-Mets telecast on Jackie Robinson Day, with Orel Hershiser and Mets analyst Ron Darling joining Joe Buck in the booth.

Among other things, maybe this is an answer to the first reaction of fans watching their team on a national broadcast: “The national announcers hate our team.”

• Today in the Suggestion Box, our continuing discussion of things this region’s teams and venues can do better: Jim Bishoff of Northridge notes that the Rose Bowl has no handrails in the aisles. “Two years ago, I gave up my (6) seats, because it was virtually impossible for me to get down to my seats, or back up when the game was over,” he wrote, adding, “I wonder if this is a violation of the ADA? The argument that it is an old stadium isn’t valid, because of the extensive remodeling going on.” …

• Oh, by the way, Dodger fans, you’re not alone. Our sibling publication, the New York Daily News, reports that fans at Yankee Stadium are complaining about “incessant” noise between pitches, which of course includes the three most terrifying words in the English language: “MAKE … SOME … NOIIIIISE!!!”

The players love it and want more noise, more music, more energy. The fans surveyed tend to find it exhausting and ear-splitting. Guess who wins that battle? …

• Quiz answer: Peter Ueberroth, chairman of the L.A. organizing committee, received a standing ovation at the Closing Ceremony at the Coliseum in 1984, a reward for running an Olympic Games that worked. (Would Casey Wasserman, or anybody from LA28, qualify for such a welcome at this point? Not likely.)

The boos? Those went to USC and Team USA baseball coach Rod Dedeaux during the championship game at Dodger Stadium, for waiting too long to remove starting pitcher John Hoover in a 6-3 loss to Japan. Just because it was a demonstration sport (with no medals) didn’t mean there wouldn’t be second-guessing.

jalexander@scng.com

Orange County Register

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Alexander: Will anyone – Lakers, Kings or Ducks – get past the 1st round?

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