The Los Angeles Lakers are currently the 10th seed in the Western Conference and the only thing that is keeping the team’s playoff hopes alive is the NBA Play-In Tournament. The Lakers are five games back of the eighth-seeded Los Angeles Clippers and without the play-in, they may have already packed their bags.
It is quite ironic as well considering LeBron James ridiculed the play-in structure last year when LA had to participate as the seventh seed. He even went as far as to say that the person who created it should be fired. With LA now being the 10th seed, we don’t hear LeBron complaining much about the play-in.
The Lakers are tied with the New Orleans Pelicans for the 10th seed and are only 2.5 games ahead of the San Antonio Spurs with 11 games remaining. LA does play New Orleans twice, which helps, but it is the Spurs that the Lakers should be worried about.
The San Antonio Spurs can absolutely usurp the Los Angeles Lakers in the play-in.
The Lakers have been playing uninspiring basketball in recent weeks. Since the All-Star Break, the Lakers have won exactly three games and they all took heroics. Two of the wins took a 50-point game from LeBron James and the latest win took an improbable steal and game-tying three at the buzzer to send the game into overtime by Russell Westbrook.
Wins are wins but the team has not won a basketball game in a normal way since before the All-Star Break when Anthony Davis got hurt. With the team’s remaining schedule, the Lakers could legitimately go 2-9 or 3-8 and it would not be a surprise.
MUST-READ: One summer trade target from each lottery team
LA faces the Cavaliers, 76ers, Pelicans (twice), Mavericks, Jazz, Nuggets (twice), Suns, Warriors and Thunder. The only lay-up in those games is the Thunder and it would even be shocking if the Lakers more than split the two games with the Pelicans down the stretch.
Once again, that looks like a 3-8 finish to me with how the Lakers have played this season, giving them a final record of 33-49.
That means that the Spurs would have to finish 5-5 in their final 10 to tie the Lakers and 6-4 to pass the Lakers entirely. The Lakers and Spurs are 2-2 in head-to-head matchups this year, so the tiebreaker would turn to conference record. The Spurs are currently 2.5 games better than LA in the Western Conference so it is safe to assume that if they tie, the Spurs will have the tiebreaker.
The Spurs’ schedule down the stretch is nowhere near as tough as the Lakers’ schedule. San Antonio plays the Trail Blazers three times, who at this point in the year, want to lose basketball games to get better lottery odds. They also have one game against Houston and a game against New Orleans.
That right there could be five wins for the Spurs and at the bare minimum is three. The other five games are tougher as San Antonio takes on the Grizzlies, Nuggets, Timberwolves, Warriors and Mavericks. Could the Spurs go 2-3 in those games if they go 3-2 in the lay-up games? Absolutely. If San Antonio goes 4-1 in the five lay-up games then it might just be a wrap.
Plus, we see teams every year change lineups and play bench players to try and lose and alter the seeding at the end of the year. If a team like the Warriors can get out of potentially playing LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the playoffs by playing a B lineup against the Spurs and playing the A lineup against the Lakers then they will do that 10 out of 10 times.
Simply put: unless the purple and gold seriously turn it around in this final stretch then there is a good chance that they do not even make the Play-In Tournament.