Postseason tips off with eliminators

LeBron James and the Lakers are back in the play-in tournament. So is Stephen Curry, as he and the Warriors will be fighting for their season. And Jimmy Butler returns as well, after this round last year was the first step on the Heat’s way to the NBA Finals.

The postseason — not technically the playoffs, yet — gets underway Tuesday night with a pair of Western Conference matchups.

The Lakers visit the Pelicans in New Orleans with the winner securing the No. 7 seed and a series with the defending champion Nuggets in Round 1. And the Warriors visit the Kings in Sacramento, an elimination game for both teams.

The Eastern Conference takes the stage Wednesday night: The 76ers play host to Miami in Philadelphia in a game to decide the No. 7 seed, and the Hawks travel to play the Bulls in Chicago with the season on the line for those clubs. The 76ers-Heat loser will play the Hawks-Bulls winner Friday night to determine the No. 8 seed.

The Celtics, the No. 1 overall seed, await the winner of that Friday matchup in the first round of the playoffs.

Los Angeles forced a rematch of Sunday’s regular-season finale with a 24point win in New Orleans that knocked the Pelicans out of the sixth seed. Now the Lakers expect the Pelicans to respond as if this were Game 2 of a series.

“You win that first game and a team has multiple days to kind of sit on that feeling, sit with that taste in their mouth of defeat, so they’re going to be extremely ready for us and we have to come in with the same sense of urgency,” said the 39-year-old James, who is playing in his 21st NBA season.

The Lakers and Heat showed that the play-in can be a springboard to bigger and better things last year; the Lakers reached the Western Conference finals, the Heat reached the NBA Finals.

“We’re not the same group as last year,” Butler said. “We — I — are very confident in the guys that we do have, and we know what we’re capable of. We’ll see what we got whenever the time gets here.”

Golden State gets a bus ride north for an eliminator against the Kings, on the same floor where the Warriors won a road Game 7 in Round 1 last year.

“We’re happy to have a shot,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said.

So are the Kings, who had an upand-down season — but have a chance to vanquish the memory of last spring.

“Let’s frickin’ go get it,” Sacramento coach Mike Brown said.