Lakers News: LA Faces Major Pre-Playoff Test During Upcoming Stretch

The Lakers are now clinging to the No. 10 seed.

Following their 123-113 loss to the now-34-24 Phoenix Suns (suddenly the Western Conference's sixth seed) on Sunday, your banged-up Los Angeles Lakers are now clinging to the West's ninth seed with a middling 31-28 record.

The club is on the cusp of a major pre-playoff test this regular season.

Los Angeles will be playing seven Western Conference postseason hopefuls over its next 10 games. Specifically, the Lakers play the 37-19 LA Clippers (the fourth seed) on Wednesday for their final regular season meeting, square off against the 39-19 Denver Nuggets (the third seed) on Saturday, battle the 40-17 Oklahoma City Thunder (the second seed) next Monday, and also will clash with the fifth-seeded Sacramento Kings (twice), first-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves, and tenth-seeded Golden State Warriors.

“We’ve got a bunch of weapons, but they’re useless if we don’t do the little things – sprinting hard when we get the ball in transition, not turning it over, maintaining spacing, making sure we get hits on screens to create an advantage and making the simple, easy play,” head coach Darvin Ham said. “To put it in detail, that’s what I’m talking about.”

Ideally, of course, the Lakers will be heading in the other direction soon and actually ascending the West standings, and overplaying aging All-Stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis in lieu of much help will not yield major injury distress to that dynamic duo. The goal should be avoiding the play-in tournament bracket altogether, not barely holding on to a seed therein. Los Angeles is just 3.5 games behind the Suns, Sacramento Kings and New Orleans Pelicans, all of whom share the same record but occupy the 5-7 seeds in the conference.