FALLING DOWN

Without Davis, ninth-place Lakers drop final home game to the 10th-place Warriors

LOS ANGELES » The stakes for the Lakers in Tuesday's marquee matchup against the Golden State Warriors were clear.

Win and they would control their fate to be at least the No.9 seed in the Western Conference, with the possibility of moving up the standings with a strong close to the season. Lose and they would be dependent on external help to avoid finishing the regular season 10th in the West.

The latter is the circumstance for the Lakers after their 134-120 loss to the Warriors in their final regular-season game at Crypto.com Arena for the 2023-24 season.

LeBron James, who's been dealing with

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THE SCORE WARRIORS 134, LAKERS 120 Lakers at Grizzlies, Friday, 5p.m.,

They jump out to a huge early lead and coast past the Suns.

flu-like symptons for the past few days, tried willing the Lakers to a victory despite being under the weather. James scored 33 points (on 14-for-22 shooting) with 11 assists and seven rebounds in 35 minutes.

Austin Reaves had 22 points, seven rebounds and six assists, while Rui Hachimura added 20 points (on 7-for-21 shooting), with 11 rebounds and two blocks.

James arrived at the arena about an hour before tipoff and didn't go through an oncourt warmup.

But the challenge of beating the Warriors, who've won eight of their last nine games, and having to do so without Anthony Davis (headache, nausea) was too difficult for the Lakers to overcome.

And now they'll need outside help to ensure they don't fall any further down the standings.

The win by the 10th-seeded Warriors moved them a half-game behind the ninthseeded Lakers in the Western Conference standings, with Golden State now having the tiebreaker over the Lakers despite the regular-season series ending tied 2-2 because the

Clippers: