Lakers Playoff Watch: Battle Of LA Has Big West Standings Ramifications

Russell Westbrook returns to the scene of the crime tonight.

Your Los Angeles Lakers conclude their five-game road trip, their last of the season, tonight with a "road" game on their home floor, Crypto.com Arena, against their "rivals" the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Clippers have always been the Lakers' little brother in the LA NBA team pecking order. The Clips have, accordingly, been striving to spruce up their very one-sided competition with the Lake Show by launching a whole campaign taking pot shots at the Lakers' starry culture of "spotlights," despite, you know, boasting two of the biggest stars of their generation in the pride of Riverside, Kawhi Leonard, and Palmdale's own Paul George. 

Now, however, the Clippers actually boast the Lakers' former priciest player earlier this season, point guard Russell Westbrook, and will do their darnedest to create some separation between themselves and the Lakers in the Western Conference standings. Both teams are currently 41-38, though the Clippers by benefit of a tiebreaker are the West's sixth seed, while the Lakers are the seventh seed. Tonight's victor will be the conference sixth seed, at least temporarily.

But this battle of LA isn't the only active game tonight between playoff/play-in hopefuls in the West.

The conference's eighth-seeded New Orleans Pelicans (40-39) face off against the 50-29 Memphis Grizzlies, the No. 2 seed in the West. In the interest of the Lakers hovering around the sixth or seventh seed, a Grizz win here against the red-hot Pellies would be optimal. 

Meanwhile, the 11th-seeded, 37-42 Dallas Mavericks, who apparently are considering shutting down All-Stars Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic to preserve a lottery pick, could get knocked down an extra peg tonight by the West's third seed, the 48-31 Sacramento Kings.

Essentially, this final week of the 2022-23 NBA season is the start of your Lakers' playoffs, as they continue to jockey for positioning in the West.

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