By losing to the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, the Los Angeles Lakers also lost their tiebreaker with Dallas, meaning that if both teams finish the regular season with identical records, the Mavericks will own the higher of the two seeds.
The Lakers will try and avoid that scenario altogether, but the gap between them and the Mavericks is only 1.5 games and Dallas has the second-easiest remaining schedule, according to Tankathon. Suffice to say, these last 12 games will be important.
If the Lakers do fall another spot in the Western Conference, they’ll draw a tougher opponent — likely the Phoenix Suns, LA Clippers or Utah Jazz — in the first round, but Anthony Davis doesn’t think the Lakers will be the underdogs in any series they play in and he explained why in a recent interview with Rachel Nichols of ESPN:
“No matter where we fall, we know that we’re capable of still winning a championship.