The Los Angeles Lakers have three days between games as the team will be back in action on Sunday against the New Orleans Pelicans. At the time of writing this, the Lakers are tied for the ninth seed with the Pelicans, although New Orleans plays the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday.
The Spurs are the 10th seed in the conference and trail the Pelicans by only two games. If the Spurs beat the Pelicans on Saturday and the Pelicans beat the Lakers then New Orleans will lead LA by half a game and LA with lead San Antonio by only one game.
The NBA season is coming down to the wire and this game on Sunday is extremely important and the team knows it. Russell Westbrook called the game a must-win, highlighting something that Laker fans have been waiting for all season: urgency (h/t ESPN).
"“It’s going to be a playoff-type of atmosphere for us because it’s definitely a must-win, I believe, for our group.”"
The last thing the Los Angeles Lakers want to do is fall behind the New Orleans Pelicans in the standings and shrink the gap to missing hte play-in altogether to only one game. That being said, that is not the only reason why Russell Westbrook is right to call this game a must-win.
Why Russell Westbrook is right about the Pelicans being a must-win for the Lakers:
1. The tiebreaker with the Pelicans
There is a world in which the Lakers and Pelicans tie for the 10th seed and only one team can make the play-in. If that is the case, the tiebreaker comes down to the head-to-head record of the two teams.
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The two teams have played just once this season and the Pelicans won the matchup. LA and New Orleans square off one more time after Sunday’s matchup on April 1. If the Pelicans win this game on Sunday then they clinch having the tiebreaker over the Lakers, which is such a big deal.
This isn’t just a big deal if they are tied for the 10th seed, it is a big deal if they are tied for the ninth seed as well, because:
2. The Los Angeles Lakers need to be home for the first play-in game.
Things are actually aligned quite nicely for the Lakers if they are the ninth seed in the play-in. As the ninth seed, the team would have to win two-straight do-or-die games but would get to host the first game against the 10th seed.
Not only does this make it more likely that they will win (since LA has been much better at home this year) but there is a very real chance that the Lakers might not have to travel at all in this situation.
The Los Angeles Clippers are the eighth seed in the Western Conference and will be underdogs against Minnesota on the road. While the Lakers host the 10th seed, the Clippers will have to go to Minnesota and if they lose, would have to turnaround and come all the way back to LA to “host” the Lakers, who were sleeping in their beds the entire time and will have a 75% home crowd.
So yeah, Russell Westbrook is right to call this game a must-win for the team. Tune in on Sunday night and hopefully, we will see a good outcome.