After yet another loss, the Lakers moved closer to being mathematically eliminated from the NBA playoffs. Sitting at just 30-36 following a 120-107 drubbing at the hands of the Boston Celtics, the Lakers now sit 7.5 games back of the eighth-seeded San Antonio Spurs. With just 16 games left to play on the season and the Sacramento Kings and Minnesota Timberwolves sitting between the Lakers and the eighth seed, the Lakers need some serious help from multiple teams to pull off a borderline miracle.
LeBron James had his typical dominant offensive production, putting up a 30/12/10 triple-double for the Lakers. However, the young big men saw considerable run time and gave Lakers fans a bit of hope moving forward for the future. While Mo Wagner struggled from deep on the night, he was incredibly efficient on his two-pointers, going seven of eight inside the three-point line en route to 22 points. Jonathan Williams also provided an efficient double-double off the bench for the Lakers and has made a major impact this season on a two-way contract and looks to have a promising future in the NBA as he continues to grow.
The Laker defense was simply unable to stop the Celtics offensive attack and allowed them to shoot 51.6/36.8 splits from the field. Kyrie Irving, in particular, was lights out from the field, putting up 30 points on an incredibly efficient 12-18 shooting from the field.
Updated Lakers Playoff Chances
Following a blowout at the hands of their arch-rival Boston Celtics, the Lakers playoff chances remained stuck at a dismal less than one percent chance according to both FiveThirtyEight’s CARMELO Projection as well as FiveThirtyEight’s ELO forecast.
Lakers Path to the Playoffs
With both Lonzo Ball and Brandon Ingram being shut down for the season and LeBron reportedly having his minutes slowly dialed back, a string of Laker wins seems nearly impossible heading into the final 16 game stretch. However, the Lakers will need to win out nearly every single game in order to even have a shot at making the playoffs. Sitting six games under .500, the Lakers simply cannot afford to fall further back in the standings if they want to have a chance to salvage the season and need to go at least 12-4 to give them a realistic shot.
Moreover, they need tons of help from other teams. Most notably, they need either the Clippers (seventh seed) or the Spurs to stumble greatly down the road and finish the year and for at least one of the two teams to finish the year with less than five wins in their remaining games. This scenario (assuming the Lakers somehow go better than 12-4) would move the Lakers ahead of whichever team stumbles.
Unfortunately, that isn’t the only thing they need to worry about. Trailing both the Kings and Timberwolves in the final playoff push, the Lakers would need both teams to finish the year with a sub .500 record. While Minnesota has one of the tougher schedules and will likely drop a number of games down the stretch, the Kings have the eighth-easiest remaining schedule in the league and have been playing inspired basketball as they try to sneak into the playoffs themselves.
All in all, it is nearly impossible for the Lakers to make the playoffs, but the path to the postseason still does at least exist at this point in time.
Lakers Playoff Chances: Latest Odds After Loss to Celtics