The Los Angeles Lakers picked up a crucial win in this playoff seeding race by beating the Houston Rockets 104-98 at Crypto.com Arena on Monday. The Lakers remain fourth in the West with a 46-29 record, and LeBron James spoke about their mission when asked postgame if he’s been looking at the standings.
“Well, I mean because it’s so close this year in particular,” James said. “So close that people are jumping each other, falling behind, whatever the case may be. I don’t do it every day, but it’s talked about pretty much all the time, and you kinda see where you at. For us, obviously, our mission is to lock in a playoff spot and not have to play in a play-in, so we understand what’s at stake.”
The Lakers certainly have put themselves in a good position for that by beating the Rockets. They are now 3.0 games ahead of the Minnesota Timberwolves, who are currently seventh in the West with a 43-32 record.
Both teams have just seven games left to play in the regular season, and it’d be a shock if the Timberwolves managed to climb above the Lakers. The only real questions for LA at this point are whether they can secure home court advantage in the first round and how far up the standings they can go.
The Lakers are just 1.0 game behind the 47-28 Denver Nuggets and 2.5 games behind the 49-27 Rockets. They are close to securing the tiebreaker against the Nuggets (better conference record) and will have it against the Rockets if they win the final regular-season meeting between the sides this season on April 11.
As for home-court, the Lakers are 2.0 games ahead of the 44-31 Memphis Grizzlies and 2.5 games ahead of the 43-31 Golden State Warriors. The Lakers will take on the Warriors next at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday at 10 PM ET, and a win there would go a long way towards ensuring they stay in the top four.
If the Lakers are to beat the red-hot Warriors, who are 16-4 in their last 20 games, they’ll need James to play better offensively than he did against the Rockets. The 40-year-old put up just 16 points (5-12 FG), eight rebounds, four assists, two steals, and two blocks on the night.
Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves weren’t at their best either, and the Lakers had the likes of Dorian Finney-Smith and Gabe Vincent to thank for this win over the Rockets. It’s unlikely the role players will deliver in that manner in back-to-back games, so the big guns will have to step up against the Warriors.
It will be interesting to see if James does deliver. The 21-time All-Star hasn’t quite been at his best since he came back from that groin injury. James has averaged just 18.7 points on 43.4% shooting from the field in the six games he has played since returning.
A 25-point outing against the Grizzlies on Saturday led you to believe that James was back to his best, but he struggled against the Rockets right after that. Which version of LeBron shows up could well end up deciding who wins this Lakers-Warriors game.
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