The Lakers and the NBA as a whole go to the final weekend of the season with their postseason fate still up in the air.
After Wednesday’s loss to the Clippers and with results continuing to shake out this week, there are only four teams that matter moving forward, at least when it comes to the Lakers and their playoff standing. The Lakers can finish has as high as the No. 5 seed or as low as the No. 9 seed.
The bottom line is, if the Lakers win their final two games, they can do no worse than the No. 7 seed where they currently sit. Have a couple of things bounce their way this weekend and it could still result in the Lakers not being in the play-in game.
Here are the standings heading into the weekend.
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With it being down to just those four teams, there were no games on Thursday that impacted these standings.
So, let’s turn our attention to Friday and Saturday’s contests.
Knicks at Pelicans - Having the tiebreaker over New Orleans is all that’s keeping the Lakers above the Pelicans right now. Matching or bettering their results over the weekend is a must to maintain home-court advantage in the play-in game at the very least.
Warriors at Kings - This will more or less determine if the Lakers have a shot at getting out of the play-in game. The Lakers have to do work on their end, but this is the more likely of the two games for Golden State to drop. It’s the biggest non-Lakers game of the weekend for the Lakers.
Timberwolves at Spurs - If the Lakers lose out and the Timberwolves win out, they will pass them in the standings. The positive on the Lakers side is that Minnesota ends the season with a back-to-back.
Trail Blazers at Clippers - The Clippers could still finish behind the Lakers, but they finish the season at home against Portland and then in Phoenix against a Suns team that very well could be resting players.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.
