Lakers Playoff Watch: Outcomes To Root For During NBA's Busy Tuesday Slate

Plenty of play-in hopefuls suit up tonight.

Your Los Angeles Lakers remain very much in the thick of the play-in tournament hunt, even without LeBron James for at least the next two weeks. At 31-34, LA is currently in a four-way tie, by record, with the Nos. 9-12 seed in their conference. Due to tiebreakers, the Lakers currently find themselves at No. 11, just outside the play-in tournament.

Tonight, there are a few very specific outcomes in the Western Conference for which Lakers fans should be hoping. Beyond the Lakers beating the Memphis Grizzlies tonight (which seems entirely possible, given the Grizzlies' absences and weird chemistry issues of late), three other games are well worth tracking.

It would behoove LA in the West standings for Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving's seventh-seeded Dallas Mavericks (33-32) to defeat the ninth-seeded Utah Jazz (who share a 31-34 record with Los Angeles), for the fifth-seeded Golden State Warriors (34-31) to take down the 13th-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder (30-34), and for D'Angelo Russell's old team, the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves (34-32), to fall to Eastern Conference powerhouse the Philadelphia 76ers.

A Lakers victory would improve their record to 32-34 on the year. Provided these other various outcomes happened, this would vault them to the ninth seed in the West. This kind of positional jockeying between basically the fifth and 13th seeds will be an issue for the rest of the season, which is why it's imperative that the Lakers take pains to protect the health of their remaining available players.

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