LeBron’s Lakers loom as likely opponent in play-in tournament
LOS ANGELES — The Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers met Tuesday at Crypto.com Arena for the final time in the regular season.
But they could be due for one more meeting when the play-in round commences next week.
The Warriors began Tuesday pegged to 10th place in the Western Conference, 1 1⁄2 games back of the ninth-place Lakers, who were without center Anthony Davis (headache, nausea) for the last of their four regular-season meetings.
Per Basketball-Reference’s playoff probabilities report, the Warriors have a 94.7% chance of finishing ninth or 10th. The Lakers have a 70.6% chance at staking their claim to one of those seeds.
The ninth seed hosts the 10th seed Wednesday in a singleelimination play-in game. The winner travels to face the team that loses the No. 7 seed’s home matchup Tuesday against the No. 8 seed.
“It’s kind of looking that way right now,” said head coach Steve Kerr before Tuesday night’s game. “But there’s still a lot that can happen. Again, you think about it, but you don’t go too heavily into it because there’s no point. All you do is prepare for the game and go try to win and then you move on to the next day.”
The Warriors won their previous two against the Lakers, though their victories — like Tuesday’s — came with a caveat: LeBron James missed the first one with ankle soreness and Davis was injured in the first quarter of the second one.
Golden State lost the first meeting 145-144 in double overtime. James and Davis both finished the game for the Lakers, as did the Warriors’ Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.
The sixth-place Phoenix Suns, seventh-place New Orleans Pelicans and eighth-place Sacramento Kings loom as potential play-in opponents for Golden State.
The bottom five teams in the postseason picture began Tuesday separated by three games.
The Warriors and Lakers have been among the NBA’s best teams since February — Golden State is 23-11 and Los Angeles is 21-9 — but neither team has gained considerable ground in the deepest Western Conference to date.
“The only thing that you can really think about is just get the best seed you can,” Kerr said. “You don’t spend a whole lot of time going through all the possibilities. You just try to go win the game and see what happens.”
Wiggins returns: Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins returned Tuesday from the sprained left ankle that cost him the past two games.
He started for Golden State alongside Curry, Thompson, Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis and scored 17 points.