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The Los Angeles Lakers are slowly hurtling towards exactly what LeBron James was hoping to avoid: the NBA Play-In Tournament. But all is not lost for Mr. James. Here is exactly what needs to happen for LeBron and his men to escape The King’s worst nightmare.
Lakers Play-In Scenarios: LeBron’s Escape Plan
The Lakers currently own a 38-30 record with four final games left in their season. They’re now officially a long shot to secure one of the top six spots in the crowded Western Conference playoff picture. But there are still a couple of outs left for them to leapfrog one of the two teams above them, the fifth-place Dallas Mavericks and the sixth-place Portland Trail Blazers.
The remaining schedule for the Purple & Gold won’t be a cakewalk, but they could conceivably win out. The biggest challenge is against the New York Knicks and former Lakers lottery pick-turned-MVP candidate Julius Randle. The Knicks are still jockeying for home-court advantage over the Atlanta Hawks and will definitely come out motivated just the same. The next three after that will be against sub-.500 teams in the Houston Rockets, Indiana Pacers, and New Orleans Pelicans.
If the Lakers can take care of business and win at least three of four or even sweep their last four games, they can escape the play-in tournament and a potential matchup with Stephen Curry’s Warriors. But they’re going to need some help from other teams to do it.
Overtaking the Blazers: Not Impossible
The Portland Trail Blazers were spiraling out of control just a couple of weeks ago. But with Monday night’s victory over the Houston Rockets, they’ve now ripped off four wins in a row and won eight of their last nine games. Great for the guy who bet his house on Damian Lillard’s Blazers, but not so great for LeBron James and Los Angeles Lakers fans everywhere.
They now stand in firm command of the sixth seed with a 40-29 record, 1.5 games ahead of the Lakers. The Blazers also own the tiebreaker between both sides, meaning LA can’t just match their mark, but rather close with a better record by season’s end.
How the Lakers can catch them:
The Lakers need to go either 4-0 or 3-1, with the Blazers going either 1-2 or 0-3, respectively. But the good news is, there’s actually a legitimate chance to still pass the Blazers. Looking into their final schedule, they’re facing the murderer’s row of Western Conference contenders.
Their next two games are against the top two seeds in the West, both on the road and both on back-to-back nights. They take on the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night, then the Phoenix Suns on Thursday night.
Those two teams are separated by just 1.5 games and are still jockeying for the first seed, especially given that the Lakers loom as a potential 2-7 matchup they’d both rather avoid. Look for them to give the Blazers a tough fight.
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Then they take on the Denver Nuggets, who are just a game out of third place and could still be in the mix for it during that final game. The weird wrinkle here is that if the Nuggets hold the Lakers' fate to land the sixth seed while simultaneously earning themselves the third seed, they might just rest Nikola Jokic to dodge them as well.
The Lakers probably would have preferred to have one more shot against Damian Lillard’s crew, but this is honestly the next best thing.
Overtaking the Mavs: A little less possible, but there’s a chance!
Speaking of teams who were on the verge of a breakdown then decided that they would stop being bad all of a sudden, here are the Dallas Mavericks. Ever since they swept the Lakers on a back-to-back set a few weeks ago, they’ve been on a tear. The Mavs have won four in a row, seven of their last eight, and own an impressive 10-2 record in their last 12 contests.
Funny enough, they’ve actually won 10 games in a row against teams not named the Sacramento Kings. They’ve shockingly lost three times to the Kings in the last three weeks, because Luke Walton is clearly looking out for his fellow Cali basketball clubs. Dropping the Mavs helps his other former squad as the Warriors would get a less ominous play-in matchup if Dallas falls down.
How the Lakers can catch them:
They now stand a full two games ahead of the Lakers at 40-28 and own the tiebreaker. The Lakers can still conceivably catch them outright, but they need the perfect storm for it to happen. One that looks like them going 4-0 or 3-1 while the Mavs go 1-3 or 0-4, respectively.
However, they have a much easier slate than the Blazers do. Their next two opponents are the Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans, who are at least both still trying to make the Western Conference play-in tournament. But while the Grizzlies have a decent shot at beating them on their home court, the Pelicans are playing without Zion Williamson or Brandon Ingram at the moment. Their last two are against the Toronto Raptors and Minnesota Timberwolves, who are both out of contention but might not be opposed to playing spoiler for a day.
But more than likely, the Lakers do end up in the play-in tournament. At the end of the day, it might not be the worst route to take on their quest for a repeat championship.
