Lakers Highlights: LA Drops Must-Win vs Warriors, Jeopardizes Playoff Seeding

The Lakers blew their chance, again.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

With All-Star center Anthony Davis out due to a headache and nausea, the Los Angeles Lakers came into tonight short-handed, ultimately losing 134-120 to the Golden State Warriors.

This was a catastrophic loss with regard to seeding, as because of Sacramento's loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, LA would've had a golden opportunity to jump back into Western Conference's the top eight. Instead, the team failed to show up tonight against Golden State, with LeBron James and Austin Reaves being the only Lakers to play with any urgency.

Now, LA is 0.5 games back of Sacramento and just 0.5 games ahead of the Warriors, as well as 2.5 games behind the Pelicans, essentially eliminating them from the West's top six seeds.

Tonight's game was frustrating primarily due to the non-LeBron minutes, where players like Taurean Prince, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Gabe Vincent were -18, -13, and -14, respectively. LeBron and Rui Hachimura were -6, with Austin Reaves being a 0. Without LeBron and/or Reaves on the floor, a D'Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura no-show meant that nobody was able to create at any level to keep the offense afloat.

Tag on Golden State's 26 3-pointers (on 41 attempts, their season-high), and LA had next to no chance to win this game.

With the Grizzlies and the Pelicans left on the slate, one can only hope LA wins out and can compete for the 8th (or possibly 7th seed), to avoid two single-elimination play-in games.