LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers temporarily avoided being cemented into the NBA play-in tournament by defeating the Phoenix Suns, 121-107, at Crypto.com Arena on Friday.

The Suns, already locked into the No. 4 seed, sat Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Chris Paul, and DeAndre Ayton. Los Angeles played LeBron, AD, and D'Angelo Russell — each of whom was a game-time decision.

The slipshod performance improved the Lakers to 42-39. Elsewhere, the Golden State Warriors (43-38) beat the Sacramento Kings and the New Orleans Pelicans (42-39) bested the New York Knicks. The Los Angeles Clippers (42-38) were idle.

The Lakers — who will conclude their regular season against the Utah Jazz on Sunday at home — have clinched tiebreakers over the Warriors and Pelicans. The Clippers own the tiebreaker over their co-tenants.

In order for the Lakers to accomplish their post-All-Star break goal of earning the No. 6 seed, they'll need to beat the Jazz (who will be without key players) and the Warriors or Pelicans lose their respective finales and have the Clippers drop both legs of their weekend back-to-back against junior varsity iterations of the Portland Trail Blazers and Suns.

Heading into the final weekend of the 2022-23 season, numerous scenarios remain in which more than one team ends up with the same record. If the four teams end up tied at 43-39, the Pelicans, Clippers, Lakers, and Warriors would be ordered No. 5 through No. 8 due to head-to-head records. It's complicated!

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The Lakers did, however, secure, at worst, a No. 8 seed with their win over Phoenix. Los Angeles can get as high as No. 5 if they beat the Jazz and the Clippers, Pelicans and Warriors finish a combined 0-4.

The play-in tournament will take place Tuesday through Friday. The No. 10 seed will visit the No. 9 seed, and the No. 8 seed will visit the No. 7 seed. The winner of the former will visit the winner of the latter for the final spot. The Oklahoma City Thunder secured the No. 10 seed with the Dallas Mavericks' loss on Friday.

The Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies, Kings, and Suns are locked into the top-four seeds.