LOS ANGELES — As Tuesday night’s exercise in downtown L.A. began, the Lakers had a legitimate shot at rising to sixth place in the Western Conference and avoiding the NBA’s play-in rounds altogether.
When it ended, after a 134-120 Golden State victory in which the Warriors shot an unconscious 26 for 41 from 3-point range – including lots of treys from guys you wouldn’t expect them from – the Lakers were in serious jeopardy of finishing 10th and having to win two elimination games on the road just to get into the actual playoffs and a first-round series against the top seed.
Ain’t this system wonderful?
For fans who don’t have a horse in this race, or who relish chaos, it’s fantastic theater. For those who do have a rooting interest among the Lakers, Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, Phoenix Suns and New Orleans Pelicans, the days leading up to Sunday’s end of the regular season could be excruciating.
Which is the point, and the reason that the play-in round – an inspired idea that came out of the 2020 COVID bubble in Orlando – is such a rousing success. You might squirm, but you’ll watch.
“I think the play-in has been great for the league,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said before Tuesday’s game. “I think it’s kept more teams engaged. It’s made for some really exciting single-elimination games for the fans to watch.
“And,” he added puckishly, “if it weren’t for the plan this year we would be just about out of things. So I liked it before when it didn’t benefit us, but I really like it now.”
Laker fans will be agonizing through their team’s final scheduled games: Friday night at Memphis (a draft lottery-bound team against which L.A. has won two of its previous three) and Sunday at New Orleans (which moved ahead of Phoenix into the No. 6 spot on Tuesday night, but has also lost two of three to the Lakers).
The distance between the ecstasy of avoiding the play-in zone and the agony of being the 10th seed and having no margin for error? Let’s call it 23 feet, 9 inches, the distance from the 3-point arc to the basket.
It is not uncommon for Steph Curry and Klay Thompson to shred opponents from behind the arc. But when guys who seldom take 3-point shots are basically gifted that shot and keep splashing it, this spells trouble. Draymond Green (46 for 122 on the season) kept getting wide open 3-point looks on Tuesday night, made his first five and wound up 5 for 7. Gary Payton II has attempted only 52 treys all season, and he went 2 for 3.
“It was our game plan tonight, for those guys that made threes to let them shoot,” forward Rui Hachimura said afterward. “It was our game plan and they did it, so you just can’t do anything about it.”
Well, they could have put a hand in Draymond’s face once in a while. Seriously, the last time he had five 3-pointers in a game was May 4, 2017, in a playoff game against Utah.
Tuesday night also was another example of how heavily the Lakers depend on their stars. LeBron James was back from the bout with, apparently, stomach flu that kept him out of Sunday’s loss to Minnesota, and he provided 33 points, 11 assists, seven rebounds and two steals in 35:32 of playing time.
But Anthony Davis, who took a shot to the face against the Timberwolves and came out of that game before halftime, was unavailable Tuesday. The official injury report listed “left eye soreness,” but Coach Darvin Ham said Davis “couldn’t quite overcome the headache and nausea” in his pregame remarks, adding that Davis was “currently not in concussion protocol.”
But the reference was suitably vague that when asked again after the game whether that headache was from illness or related to the blow he took Sunday night, Ham said, “You have to ask our doctors for sure. … That’s (illness) what it feels like to me, but again, I’m not a medical professional.”
Without Davis, the Lakers’ defense was nauseating and did cause headaches, in a manner of speaking. His rim protection might have enabled the defenders further out on the floor to defend those gimme 3-point shots more aggressively, and who knows how that might have turned out?
“They put a lot of pressure on your defense, not having A.D. back there as our conductor, communicating and moving around,” Ham said. “But, you know, we came into the game, we feel comfortable with our game plan. … All NBA players are capable, don’t get me wrong. But the guys you want shooting the ball shot the ball. And when they’re able to hold the water or maintain with those guys making shots, you know eventually Steph and Klay are going to make their shots.”
Curry was 6 for 6 from distance, Thompson shot 5 for 10.
As much as the Lakers depend on their stars, consider that they are 21-10 since Feb. 1 – the night in Boston when they were without both Davis and James and the remainders roughed up the Celtics,114-105. Going into that game they were a game under .500 and that In-Season Tournament “championship” seemed more like a mirage every day.
But there is this about the Western Conference: The Lakers are 45-35. The Warriors are 44-35 and have gone 25-11 since Jan. 30, two days after they dropped a nationally televised double-overtime thriller to the Lakers in San Francisco. Yet neither can make up ground in a conference with four 50-win teams and a fifth, Dallas, that had 49 wins all told and 15 in its last 17 going into its game Wednesday night game at Miami.
Do players and coaches scoreboard watch at this point of the season? Kerr said he’ll pick up his phone immediately following a game to double-check how everyone else did. And Austin Reaves said he’ll be keeping track of other results this week, but with this caveat:
“Good things don’t happen if we don’t win, regardless.”
At this stage, their own margin for error slim and the opportunities dwindling, the Lakers’ job is simply to win their last two. As for worrying about the other games that might affect where they finish?
It’s enough to give them a headache.
