Lakers Face Crucial Friday Match Up With Blazers

Needing to win the new play-in tournament to qualify for the playoffs is becoming a bigger possibility for the Lakers.

Following the 118-94 loss to city rivals the Clippers on Thursday, the Lakers dropped to 37-29. It’s the same record as the Portland Trail Blazers, who they play on Friday.

Anthony Davis exited the Clippers game due to a back issue with 2 minutes and 50 seconds left in the first quarter. He expects to play against Portland, which he says is ‘probably the biggest game’ of the 6 remaining.

After the game, the Lakers contemplated the possibility of playing in the play-in matches.

Want $250 to bet on the NBA?

Sign up today!

“I mean, we don’t look at it as something bad,” Davis said. 

“To be honest, we need a lot of games. We need games to get back accustomed to each other, anyway.

“Obviously, we don’t want to go that route,” he said. “But if it happens, it happens. We’re gonna win games in the play-in and then get ready for whoever we play in the first round and take care of business from there. So, we look at it as game reps in the play-in. And if not, then we got a little bit more practice time to get accustomed to each other. So, either way, we’re fine either way.”

“I think I’ve said before, we wasn’t thinking about the damn play-in game,” Markieff Morris said.

“If it happens, it happens. If we’re healthy, s—, I would want to avoid us if I was the top two teams.”

Read: NFL Draft First Step In Return To Normality

“The play-in tournament is out of my control,” Vogel said Thursday. 

“If we’re in it, we’ll compete and we’ll win those games so that we can try to advance. Whether we should have one or not is really not up to me. So I don’t spend too much time or thought on whether it’s good or not.”