Lakers Drop Out Of Play-In Tournament, LeBron James In Danger Of Missing Playoffs For Fourth Time

Things aren’t looking too good for the Los Angeles Lakers with just seven games to play in the regular season. 

On Tuesday night, the Lakers were blown out in Dallas, losing to the Mavericks 128-110. It’s their third consecutive loss, dropping them to 31-44, and out of the play-in tournament. 

Playing without LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the Lakers were down 82-56 at halftime, and allowed Mavericks point guard Luka Doncic to record a 30-point triple-double. The loss dropped the Lakers into a tie with the San Antonio Spurs — the two teams share identical records — but San Antonio holds the tiebreaker, moving them into the 10th and final play-in spot. 

“Not good enough. In any way,” Lakers head coach Frank Vogel said according to the LA Times. “This is one of the most prolific offenses in the league. The Luka Doncic pick-and-roll is as tough to prepare for, is as tough of an action to slow down, as any in the league. And with a lot of guys out we had to come in and execute at a high level.”

“And we executed very poorly to start the game and really that whole first half, with what our game plan was,” Vogel continued. “And then as we tried to adjust to look at some Plan Bs and Plan Cs, we just didn’t execute well enough and play with enough toughness, IQ, intelligence, focus and fight in that half. So, not acceptable and just a poor performance across the board. Coaches, players, everybody.”

James missed the game with a sprained ankle suffered in Sunday’s loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. It was the 20th game James has missed this season, as the four-time NBA champion is in danger of missing the playoffs for just the fourth time in his 19 NBA seasons. 

First-year Laker Russell Westbrook had 25 points, eight rebounds, and six assists on the night, but posted a minus-25 in his 32 minutes of playing time. As has been the case for most of the season, Westbrook had a tense back and forth with a reporter following the loss. 

When asked what the Lakers could do moving forward in order to improve, Westbrook didn’t offer much of an answer. 

“Nothing man. Nothing,” Westbrook said … “Because it doesn’t. What does it change? We’ve still got games to play. Other teams have games to play. We still have to play teams that’s above us in the play-in. Doesn’t really change much.” 

Westbrook then asked the reporter what he thought needed to change. 

“Winning,” the reporter responded. 

“OK, that’s obvious,” he said. “What do you think should change?

“That’s fine. You got an answer to winning? You got an answer to winning?” Westbrook said before getting up from his seat and continuing the conversation. 

Russell Westbrook had an altercation with a reporter and walked out of his postgame interview 😳pic.twitter.com/iIz6vNHsx8

— PointsBet Sportsbook (@PointsBetUSA) March 30, 2022

The Lakers face an uphill battle if they are to avoid missing the playoffs completely, with six of their remaining seven games coming against current playoff teams. Considering the Lakers were once preseason favorites to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals, the 2021-2022 season could wind up being James’ most disappointing.

Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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