Lakers Playoff Picture: How L.A. Can Avoid the Play-in Tournament

The Los Angeles Lakers appear to be headed for the play-in tournament, but there is still time left for the Lakers to avoid this scenario with a lot of help. As a reminder, the No. 7 through No. 10 seeds in each conference will make the play-in tournament.

With three games to go, the No. 7 Lakers find themselves one game behind the No. 5 Blazers and No. 6 Mavericks. It is a bit more complicated than that as the Lakers do not hold the tiebreaker over the Blazers or Mavericks, so they will need to finish at least one game above either team to top them in the standings.

If there is a silver lining for Lakers fans, it is the Blazers have a much more challenging closing schedule with games against three of the top four seeds in the Western Conference based on the current standings. Portland has gone 0-6 against those teams this year. The Lakers face the Rockets, Pacers and Pelicans to close out the season.

The bad news for the Lakers is they end the season with a back-to-back and both games are on the road. If the Lakers won all of the final four games, they would still need the Blazers to lose at least two of their final matchups. All this leads to an exciting finish for the Lakers, but head coach Frank Vogel emphasized the team is not fearing the play-in tournament if the standings hold.

“For me, I’m unafraid of the play-in tournament with this team,” Vogel said, per Silver Screen and Roll. “But we definitely want to finish in the top-six. There’s just too many things that can happen in a one-game series: foul trouble, a rolled ankle, anything like that could pop up. We definitely want to finish in the top-six, it’s high priority for us, but at the same time, I’m confident in our group.”

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How Does the Play-in Tournament Work for the Lakers?

If the Lakers remain the No. 7 seed, here is how the play-in tournament works for Los Angeles. The Lakers would play the No. 8 seed, likely either the Warriors or Grizzlies, in a one-game playoff to advance to the playoffs as the No. 7 seed to face the No. 2 seed.

The losing team would face the winner of the No. 9 versus No. 10 play-in matchup to be the No. 8 seed. The winner of this third game of the play-in tournament advances to the playoffs as the No. 8 seed to face the No. 1 seed in a seven-game series.

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Western Conference Play-in Tournament Standings

Teams in italics would make the play-in tournament if the season ended today. The games back column is based on how far each team is behind the No. 6 seed to avoid the play-in tournament.

TEAM	W	L	GB
5. Mavericks	40	29	–
6. Trail Blazers	40	29	–
7. Lakers	39	30	1
8. Warriors	37	33	3.5
9. Grizzlies	36	33	4
10. Spurs	33	35	6.5
11. Pelicans	31	38	9
12. Kings	31	38	9

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Current Western Conference Play-in Tournament Matchups

Game 1	No. 8 Warriors vs. No. 7 Lakers
Game 2	No. 10 Spurs vs. No. 9 Grizzlies
Game 3	Game 1 Loser vs. Game 2 Winner

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Western Conference Playoff Standings

Here is a look at the Western Conference standings heading into the Tuesday, May 11th matchups.

TEAM	W	L	GB
1. Jazz	50	19	–
2. Suns	48	21	2
3. Clippers	46	23	4
4. Nuggets	45	24	5
5. Trail Blazers	40	29	10
6. Mavericks	40	29	10
7. Lakers	39	30	11
8. Warriors	37	33	13.5
9. Grizzlies	36	33	14
10. Spurs	33	35	16.5
11. Pelicans	31	38	19
12. Kings	31	38	19

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Lakers’ Remaining Schedule

DATE	MATCHUP	TIME (ET)
Tues., May 11	Knicks at Lakers	Lakers win, 101-99 (OT)
Wed., May 12	Rockets at Lakers	10:30 p.m.
Sat., May 15	Lakers at Pacers	TBD
Sun., May 16	Lakers at Pelicans	TBD

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Blazers’ Remaining Schedule

DATE	MATCHUP	TIME (ET)
Mon., May 10	Rockets at Blazers	Blazers win, 140-129
Wed., May 12	Blazers at Jazz	9:30 p.m.
Thurs., May 13	Blazers at Suns	10 p.m.
Sun, May 16	Nuggets at Blazers	TBD

 

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