After the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, Anthony Davis told NBA reporters that he and his teammates don’t care what seed they’re in.
The Lakers are currently in ninth place in the Western Conference standings with a record of 34-29. Davis and Co. would face the Golden State Warriors in the 9-10 play-in tournament game if the season ended today.
“It’s about us, for sure,” Davis said, via The Athletic. “Just about getting in. We’re behind the eight-ball a little bit, but we’re right there. In the event we don’t get the top six, you gotta go through the whole play-in kind of process again. We don’t really care what seed we’re in. We proved it last year. It doesn’t matter. Playoffs is a different animal. … For us, it’s just about getting in and tackling each opponent from there.”
If the Lakers stay in the ninth spot, they would have to win two play-in games in a row to clinch the eighth seed. The same rules apply if they are in the 10th spot.
Last year, the Lakers defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 7-8 play-in game. They were the seventh seed in the 2023 NBA playoffs and beat the Memphis Grizzlies and Warriors to reach the Western Conference Finals, where they got swept by the Denver Nuggets.
The Lakers’ next game is against the Sacramento Kings, who are in seventh place in the West. LAL is 1.5 games back of Sacramento in the standings.
“That’s a very important game,” Davis said. “We play them twice within the next week or so. That’s gonna be a big game and then the one next week is gonna be a big game. We gotta come in and take care of business.”
Since winning the championship in 2020, the Lakers have lost in the first round of the playoffs, missed the postseason altogether and lost in the conference finals.
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