#1 in the West: Lakers Clinch the Top Seed in the Western Conference

After a horrible off season of trade talks, bad blood and all around ill feelings to the Lakers franchise, Kobe Bryant and his boys in purple and gold have pull together and clinched the number one seed in the Western Conference.

Unbelieveable! If you would have asked me before the season what the Lakers record was going to be or how their season would be I would have answered with only one word, TERRIBLE!

I could have sworn the Lakers would either completely miss the playoffs all together or get the 8th spot by dumb luck, but WOW! No one could have predicted that the Lakers would be the best team in the west, trade Kwame Brown for Pau Gasol and look like title contenders, not to mention see the emergence of Andrew Bynum into a legitimate force in the middle and one of the top centers in the NBA.

Last night's blowout victory over the Sacramento Kings showed exactly how the Lakers have evolved from a drama filled team going nowhere to a mature dominating force ready to win their next NBA title!

Everyone got in on the fun last night, even bench warmer Chris Mihm if you can believe that! Every single Laker that hit the floor in the 23 point blowout of the Kings scored at least once including the Ira Newble (2 pts), DJ Mbenga (4 pts), Chris Mihm (4 pts). Kobe Bryant had an off shooting night only hitting 3 of his 13 shots (which he made up for at the line 13 out of 14), but it didn't seem to matter as Pau Gasol (22 pts), Lamar Odom (15 pts), Radmanovic (14 pts), Farmar (13 pts) and Ronny Turiaf (10 pts) carried the load on the way for the Lakers first #1 seed in the Western Conference since 2004.

Even though the Lakers have clinched the number 1 seed in the West their opponent in the first round is still up in the air with the Dallas Mavericks and the Denver Nuggets first round fates still to be determined.

LAKERS WILL EITHER FACE THE DENVER NUGGETS OR THE DALLAS MAVERICKS IN THE FIRST ROUND OF THE WESTERN CONFERENCE PLAYOFFS