Will The Lakers Make The Playoffs? Postseason Chances After Loss To Bucks

A team led by LeBron James missing the NBA playoffs would almost be unthinkable in normal circumstances, but the Los Angeles Lakers look poised to pull it off. The Lakers went blow-for-blow against perhaps the NBA’s best team in the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night, but a fourth-quarter collapse may have doomed their postseason chances even further.

The Lakers are 3.5 games out of the eighth and final playoff seed in the Western Conference. At 30-32, they would realistically need to go 14-6 the rest of the way to reach the average number of wins the west’s final playoff seed has had in recent years, according to the LA Times.

The journey will be a little bit easier with a road trip against the lowly Phoenix Suns on Saturday night, but the schedule is no joke the rest of the way. The Lakers’ final five regular season games are all against teams that are currently in playoff position.

ESPN’s BPI calculations give the Lakers just a 2.9 percent chance to make the playoffs. Betting site BetDSI has the Lakers as minus-money favorites to stay home after the regular season, with -390 odds to miss the playoffs.

James and company actually looked ready to knock off the Eastern Conference-leading Bucks at Staples Center on Friday night. Los Angeles led after three quarters and got 31-point performances out of both James and Brandon Ingram. Rajon Rondo even contributed 20 points.

But the Bucks outscored the Lakers by 12 points in the game’s final period and ended up winning by 11. LA was gashed in the paint repeatedly by Eric Bledsoe driving to the basket. Bledsoe finished the night with 31 points, though he only made two shots from beyond the arc.

The Lakers are 10th in the west right now, behind the Sacramento Kings and San Antonio Spurs. If anything, it looks like the LA Clippers will host playoff games at the Staples Center instead of the Lakers. The Clippers are seventh in the west right now.