Tuesday night’s loss to the Golden State Warriors all but assured the Los Angeles Lakers’ fate as a Play-In Tournament team. That was officially locked in on Wednesday following the Phoenix Suns victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.
Both the Lakers and Warriors are locked into the Play-In Tournament and will be, at best, the seventh seed. More likely for the Lakers, however, will be either the ninth or tenth seed and one more meeting with the Warriors.
The Lakers are currently 0.5 games ahead of the Warriors but tied in the loss column and the Golden State has the tiebreaker advantage after winning the season series. As such, if the Warriors win their final three games, the Lakers will fall behind them and need to win two road games to qualify for the playoffs.
There is still a chance the Lakers could move up to the seventh or eighth seed, depending on how the Sacramento Kings, Phoenix Suns and New Orleans Pelicans do in their final three games. Sacramento has struggled recently after losing two key players to injury and has a difficult back-to-back coming up. If they lose two of their last three and the Lakers win out, they would jump ahead of the Kings.
But as is also the case with the Warriors, the Lakers also do not have the tiebreaker advantage against the Kings so a tie in the standings does not benefit them. Likewise, any sort of three-way tie involving the Lakers, Warriors and Kings would result in the Lakers being last of the three.
Regardless of anything else, the most important thing for the Lakers is for Anthony Davis to return to the court as the team loses so much when he isn’t available. The situation isn’t the best, but with a little help the Lakers could still put themselves in a better position to move up in the standings and only need one win to get out of the Play-In and make the playoffs.
Lakers standings update
5. Mavericks (50-30)
Upcoming schedule: vs. Pistons (April 12), @ Thunder (April 14)
6. Pelicans (47-32)
Upcoming schedule: @ Kings (April 11), @ Warriors (April 12), vs. Lakers (April 14)
7. Suns (47-33)
Upcoming schedule: @ Kings (April 12), @ Timberwolves (April 14)
8. Kings (45-34)
Upcoming schedule: vs. Pelicans (April 11), vs. Suns (April 12), vs. Trail Blazers (April 14)
9. Lakers (45-35)
Upcoming schedule: @ Grizzlies (April 12), @ Pelicans (April 14)
10. Warriors (44-35)
Upcoming schedule: @ Trail Blazers (April 11), vs. Pelicans (April 12), vs. Jazz (April 14)
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