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On a night that saw LeBron James go for 36 points alongside the return of basketball’s feel-good story, Andre Ingram, the Los Angeles Lakers got back in the win column with a win over the Chicago Bulls to keep their playoff chances alive. While a loss on the night would almost certainly put the dagger in what already seems like a futile effort, the win (albeit expected) was necessary to keep the Lakers afloat.
Andre Ingram made his long-awaited Lakers return and despite going 0-1 from the field and only seeing the floor for two minutes, should look to see more minutes moving forward as he fills the most glaring void this team faces. Kyle Kuma was able to also return to the lineup after his injury and returned to his role of playing secondary scorer alongside LeBron.
While the Lakers still miss Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball for the rest of the year, the win at least gave hope that this unit can play competent basketball down the stretch and potentially make a run to push for the eighth seed.
Updated Lakers Playoff Chances
Heading into the night, both FiveThirtyEight’s ELO Forecast and FiveThirtyEight’s CARMELO Projection gave the Lakers less than a one percent chance of making the NBA playoffs. Facing a rough schedule ahead and well out of the eighth seed in the western conference, the Lakers faced (and still do) a most likely impossible mountain to climb.
After the win neither projection model offered the Lakers better chances, with both holding firm at less than one percent. Being that the win came against the lowly Bulls, most projection models accounted for the win before the game even tipped off. With a final stretch of games featuring the Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Utah Jazz, and Portland Trail Blazers the Lakers still need to pick up wins against their playoff-caliber opponents in order to find themselves having a realistic shot at still making the playoffs.
Lakers Path to the Playoffs
With just 15 games left on the year, the win moves the Lakers to six and a half games back of the eighth-seeded Utah Jazz. The Lakers will need to go something around 11-4 over their final 15 games in order to have a reasonable shot to be in a position to steal a playoff seed. However, they do not control their own destiny and require a decent bit of help from the Jazz, Kings, and Timberwolves.
The Jazz would need to win fewer than five games over their last 16 games, a tough task even considering Tankathon projects the Jazz to have the easiest remaining strength of schedule in the NBA. While the Kings and Timberwolves both project to have difficult schedules themselves, the Lakers will need help across the board from all three teams in the form of simultaneous losing streaks.
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