The Los Angeles Lakers play host to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Play-in Tournament on Wednesday.

The Warriors (39-33) struggled at times throughout the season but ended as one of the strongest teams in the NBA. In fact, they come into this matchup winning six straight and 15 of their final 20 games in total. That's easily their best stretch of the year, and it says a lot about how much they've grown. Stephen Curry is the one who carried them to this point, leading the NBA with nearly 32 points per game. That's the MVP Curry we remember from former years, and it pairs wonderfully with a resurgence from Draymond Green as well.

The Lakers (42-30) fell all the way to seventh in the west, but this is a club no one wants to face right now. Injuries to LeBron James, Dennis Schroder, and Anthony Davis dropped them all the way down there, but all three were good to go for their final few games. That led to them finishing up the year with a five-game winning streak, showing why they're the defending champs. The most important part about that is the fact that James and Davis both looked healthy together for the first time in months. That's one of the scariest duos in the NBA, and it looks even better when you see that they added guys like Andre Drummond and Talen Horton-Tucker as well.

The loser of this game will face the winner of the Memphis-San Antonio matchup later this week. These teams played three times during the regular season, with Los Angeles winning two of those. They won both of those games by nearly 30 points and have beat the Warriors in five of their last six meetings dating back three years.