The Los Angeles Lakers didn’t have the services of LeBron James or Anthony Davis on Tuesday night during their trip to Dallas to take on the Mavericks. Unsurprisingly, this did not work out particularly well for them, as the Lakers suffered a 128-110 loss.
While Davis is targeting a return in the coming days from an injury that has held him out since mid-February and James hasn’t been ruled out for an extended period despite dealing with swelling in his left ankle, the loss made the Lakers’ already-unenviable situation a little worse. L.A. fell to 31-44 on the season, which puts them in 11th place and out of the Western Conference play-in tournament altogether. Currently, the Lakers are tied with the San Antonio Spurs, who hold the tiebreaker over them for the 10-seed.
Perhaps the hardest pill to swallow for L.A. is that their final seven games this season are absolutely brutal. Four of their remaining seven contests are on the road and all of them come against teams firmly in the playoffs: Utah on March 31, Phoenix on April 5, Golden State on April 7, and Denver on April 10. While their home schedule is not as arduous, they still play a team fighting hard to stick in the play-in tournament (New Orleans on April 1) and a playoff team (Denver on April 3) before suiting up against the Oklahoma City Thunder — against whom they are 1-2 on the year — in their home finale on April 8. According to Tankathon, only Memphis and Chicago have more difficult schedules to close out the year. If there is a silver lining, it is that San Antonio has the fifth-toughest schedule in the league with seven games to go.
Should they make the play-in, history has shown that it’s not especially easy to beat a team with James on it in a one-game series, while Davis should be healthy and rested by the time that rolls around. Of course, that assumes they are able to make it in the first place, and that is by no means guaranteed.