Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James is just two games into his return from a high ankle sprain and while he hasn’t played particularly poorly, the Lakers are not winning. They are 0-2 in his games back and even worse than that, they now sit in a three-way tie for the No. 5 seed.
Over the final eight games of the regular season, the Lakers need to do everything in their power to avoid falling into the No. 7 seed, forcing them to play in the dreaded play-in tournament. The NBA added this version of the play-in tournament this season, including the Nos.