Memphis Grizzlies: Glory vs. LeBron James, Lakers or path of least resistance | Giannotto

The choice seems obvious, right?

The choice is obvious, if the overarching goal is to win an NBA championship.

Of course, Memphis Grizzlies fans should want the Minnesota Timberwolves to beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA’s play-in tournament Tuesday (9 p.m., TNT).

The Lakers have LeBron James and Anthony Davis, rounding into form as the season ends. They have never lost a playoff series in which those two finished healthy. They have the second-best record in the NBA – and the fourth-best defensive rating – since the All-Star break, since they remade the supporting cast around them.

The Timberwolves have Rudy Gobert fighting Kyle Anderson on the bench in the biggest (and last) game of the regular season. They haven’t won a playoff series since 2004. They have a worse record (42-40) than last season (46-36), they have the memory of losing to these Grizzlies last postseason, and they don't a couple key pieces due to injury (Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid), just like Memphis.

But what if the choice is also presented as one between the path of least resistance and the path with the most potential glory? It's a classic dilemma of risk and reward, and there's no question what's what with this bracket.

There's a very feasible scenario where the Grizzlies get to the Western Conference Finals facing Minnesota and Sacramento, two franchises who have combined for the same number of playoff wins in the past 18 seasons as Memphis got last season (6). By earning the No. 2 seed, the Grizzlies seemingly positioned themselves on the right side of the playoffs, with Denver and Phoenix on the other.

There's also a very possible road featuring the glitz and glam of the Lakers and LeBron followed by another shot at Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors. They could go through this postseason in the most high-profile way possible, through two of the NBA’s three most valuable franchises and winners of five of the past eight NBA titles.

That’s a real possibility the way the bracket sets up. Getting to the Western Conference finals that way would be something, maybe better than anything this franchise has pulled off.

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And isn’t that, eventually, what we all expect from this version of the Grizzlies, led by Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane? To take this team and this city to place it has never gone before. Perhaps it’s still too soon for a run like that. Perhaps the injuries to Steven Adams and Brandon Clarke are too much to overcome. But the expectation is there’s something like that in the cards in the not-too-distant future.

Simply beating the Lakers in the first round would be this core's most significant milestone to date.

Beating Minnesota would be expected, instead of the validation taking out James and Davis would be. It would be just another playoff series, instead of the marquee playoff series of the opening round. It would be Tee Morant vs. Karl Towns Sr. again, instead of Tee Morant vs. Shannon Sharpe again.

It would, most importantly, be the type of series Memphis wouldn’t get nearly enough credit for winning, given how difficult it might actually be to win. The reality is, given the parity within the Western Conference this season, the Grizzlies are simultaneously vulnerable to a first-round upset and set up very well to make a run.

The size of both the Lakers and Timberwolves will be a problem for Memphis without Adams or Clarke, although at least the Grizzlies are used to playing without them by now. They got past Minnesota last year in six games with Adams largely relegated to the bench after Game 1, but they did so in large part because Clarke featured heavily (and effectively) in the series. Those performances helped convince the Grizzlies front office to give Clarke a contract extension this past offseason.

Let’s not forget Minnesota led for a majority of that series. The Grizzlies played the fourth quarters better.

Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards are still going to be a problem, and now they’ve got Anderson telling them the Grizzlies’ secrets. There’s also Mike Conley, now in Minnesota after a trade deadline deal from Utah, and putting him out of the playoffs would feel a lot like the end of Old Yeller.

The Athletic reported Conley helped calm the Minnesota halftime locker room as it nearly erupted between Anderson and Gobert. It shouldn’t surprise anyone in Memphis who witnessed Conley’s class for 12 seasons. But it does the Grizzlies no good if there’s kumbaya again in Minnesota, even if you’d prefer the Timberwolves over Los Angeles. Best to end Conley’s season quickly before his leadership rubs off on anyone up north.

Oh, but who am I kidding?

Give me the path of least resistance. Give me the team coming to blows, not the team with LeBron.

Let’s Go Wolves!

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: @mgiannotto

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis Grizzlies: LeBron, Los Angeles Lakers or Minnesota Timberwolves