Can the Lakers still make it to the playoffs this season?

As of this writing, the Lakers are hanging by a thread in its campaign to get to the postseason. It the Los Angeles team fails to make it, it will be the first time in 14 years that LeBron James will miss the playoffs. Moreover, even if the Lakers make it, they’d likely have to content with the Warriors in the first round, explains sports enthusiast James DeVellis.

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The Lakers are sporting a below-.500 record of 28-29 after the All-Star break. This puts them three games below the eighth spot (currently held by the Clippers) and two wins behind Sacramento. There are just 25 games left in the team’s schedule, and chances of avoiding a battle with Golden State in the first round is unlikely, as the seventh spot are being fought for by the Rockets, Spurs, and Jazz.

It’s a precarious situation for the Lakers which wasn’t helped by low morale among the team’s younger crop of players, coming from a failed trade for Anthony Davis early last February. Kuzma, Ball, Ingram, and Hart need to step up and forget that their stint in L.A. had been put on the line for the AD trade.

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LeBron James surely wants to maintain his streak of playoffs appearances, but if it will come with a drubbing by the Warriors, it might make better sense to just let this year go and focus on acquiring AD in the summer, adds James DeVellis. It also doesn’t help that the Lakers have a difficult schedule ahead, including home matches against contenders Bucks, Celtics, and Nuggets, and away games versus OKC, Utah, and Toronto.

James DeVellis is a sports business major based in Arizona. He is a voracious reader who’s into sports writing. Visit this blog for more NBA-related posts.