The Los Angeles Lakers can finally look ahead to the NBA playoffs. The Lakers fell to 3-5 in their seeding games with a 136-122 loss to the Sacramento Kings, in a game in which LeBron James did not play in the second half and the Lakers were also without Anthony Davis, in addition to key role players like Kyle Kuzma and Alex Caruso.
LeBron James finished with 17 points and four assists in the game, while the Lakers also recorded their highest-scoring quarter of the seeding games with 40 points in the first quarter on Thursday. Dion Waiters led the Lakers in scoring with 19 points. Meanwhile, Sacramento’s Buddy Hield had a game-high 28 points and Bogdan Bogdanovic had 27 points.
More importantly, the Lakers can now start to prepare for the playoffs as they await their opponent. ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported that Game 1 of the Lakers first-round series is likely to come on Tuesday, allowing for an additional day of rest for the winner of the Western Conference play-in game, should it go to a second game on Sunday. It could also potentially allow Rajon Rondo an additional day of training and recovery as he is currently in a 4-day quarantine after rejoining the NBA campus.
Portland, Memphis, Phoenix, and San Antonio are all alive in the race for the playoffs and all have the potential to be eliminated. But by the end of the day, the Lakers’ attention span for the upcoming playoffs can go from tracking four teams to only two. Portland, however, does have the advantage of knowing what they need to do as they play the last consequential game of the day against Brooklyn at 6 p.m. pacific.
