LOS ANGELES -- Forget the challenge of the Los Angeles Lakers entering the playoffs with their starting small forward suspended and pay no mind to their 3-7 record during the regular season against the five teams ahead of them (San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Chicago, Miami and Indiana) in the NBA standings.

Kobe Bryant still believes the Lakers will be the team to lift the Larry O'Brien Trophy come June.

"I expect to win it, absolutely," Bryant told 710 ESPN's "Max & Marcellus Show" on Wednesday. "I think the thing that's our biggest strength is our versatility and our size. (Ramon) Sessions has added another dimension to our team in terms of speed and point guard that can score the ball. Our bench has been playing extremely well. We've been shooting the ball extremely well, and our biggest key is our perimeter shooting, limiting our turnovers, and keeping the game at our pace. If we can do those things in the postseason, I like our chances."

The Lakers play their final regular season game on Thursday in Sacramento but already have locked up the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference playoff standings which, as of Wednesday, would pit them against the Denver Nuggets in the first round. There is still a chance the Lakers would play the defending champion Dallas Mavericks in the first round, however. Dallas trails Denver in the standings by just a half game.

Not that the opponent really matters to Bryant.

"Everybody's a problem," Bryant said when asked who the top contenders were. "The Western Conference has been tough from top to bottom now for years. There are no easy matchups. You can't look at one particular matchup and say, 'OK, that's going to be an easy series. That's going to be a gimme series.' That just doesn't happen in the Western Conference.