It's a good time to take stock of where the Lakers stand in the Western Conference, and all around are little signs of what the rest of the world thinks of them. Not just the pundits on the major websites, but gambling houses and video game makers. To that end, the folks at Betonline and NBA2K have weighed in, with revised playoff odds and ratings for the upcoming season's edition of the iconic game.

Currently, the Lakers have the eighth best odds to make the playoffs, behind Golden State, the Clippers, Phoenix, Memphis, Denver, Dallas and Minnesota. They're just a hair ahead of the Pelicans. All of which seems fair, more or less. So how much better would the Lakers have to get to climb that list? What has to happen? How likely are some of these other teams to see the type of misfortune that could knock them down a peg or two (because it's easy to forget, every team has land mines in their path, in one way or another).

Any teams behind the Lakers likely to jump up and surprise?

And if 2K ratings really mean anything, there might be some surprisingly optimistic calculating going on from the folks in charge of the algorithms. Or, maybe they just want Lakers fans to buy the game. Either way, has anyone in that office ever seen a photo of Austin Reaves? Because renderings suggest otherwise.

Finally, is it possible that Russell Westbrook is becoming a sympathetic figure at this point?

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: On colonoscopies and Western Conference Playoff Odds.

SEGMENT 2: Part of the problem: It's not just that the Lakers have roster issues, it's that the top eight in the Western Conference is brutally good.

SEGMENT 3: Evaluating the team's 2K numbers, plus ... sympathetic Russ?

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