The Los Angeles Lakers are now 39-32 with their highest win percentage (.549) since 2020-21, the season after they won their last NBA championship. Yet, they’re only ninth in the Western Conference Standings due to what’s been a bloodbath in the Western Conference standings.
Frankly, even if they were in the East, their record would still lead them to the Play-In Tournament. The Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers are currently seventh and eighth in the Eastern Conference standings at 39-32, respectively (the Heat have won the season series over the Sixers, 2-1). That record would have been good enough to nudge Miami and Philadelphia into the postseason in years past. However, the Play-In Tournament rules put seventh- and eighth-place teams at risk of losing their playoff spot to teams that are in ninth- or 10th-place.
That bodes well for the Lakers out West, but it would be a thorn in their side in the East.
LeBron James, Anthony Davis Open Up About Western Conference Playoff Standings
In any case, L.A. is now at the point of the season where every game is magnified. 11 games remain on their schedule and the best-case scenario has them working their way up to the second-seed. The worst-case scenario is the Lakers falling out of the playoff race altogether, falling as far as 13th in the West.
After the Lakers defeated the Indiana Pacers in a high-scoring affair on Sunday night, superstar LeBron James was asked about keeping track of where L.A. is in the Western Conference standings.
“It has been flip-flopping so much over the last few weeks that I kind of stopped looking at it,” James says, “and kind of focused on each game at a time. Obviously, we know where we are right now, but are going to continue to play good basketball” (per Lakers Nation reporter Ryan Ward).
Anthony Davis, who has had the largest two-way impact on the Lakers this season, all but mirrored the team leader’s sentiments. However, Davis also acknowledged the pressure that L.A. feels watching the West standings:
“I mean, it’s everywhere right now…,” Davis says. “We’re just trying to control what we can, and that’s winning one game at a time. Obviously, we try to look and figure out how far we are behind the sixth seed, but you stress yourself out. Putting too much pressure on yourself…”
“But we’re ninth right now,” the nine-time All-Star continues, “so we just got to continue to play our style of basketball and focus on us… Take it one game at a time and worry about winning that game… If we continuously do that, then the rest will take care of itself.”
Safe Travels
The Lakers have a six-game road trip ahead that will start in the Midwest and end on the East Coast. They only have two games against current playoff teams on that trip: the Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks. Having gone 5-2 over the past two-plus weeks, L.A. should be confident that they’ll come out on the other side still in playoff contention. However, as James and Davis said, their best strategy will be to take it one game at a time rather than looking too far ahead.
