The Los Angeles Lakers have a handful of games remaining in the regular season. That means that between now and April 13 — the final day of the regular season — all of the questions surrounding seeding and postseason matchups for the first round are going to be answered.
With a big win over the Houston Rockets on Monday, the Lakers put themselves in a great position to not only avoid the Play-In Tournament, but also fight for an even higher seed over the last seven games. They’ll need to play with urgency the way both LeBron James and JJ Redick have described, but the No. 2 seed is legitimately within reach for L.A.
With things starting to wind down, the Lakers are vying for the best season possible in a tight Western Conference. So as they enter the true stretch run and jockey for positioning, we’ll take a look at every tiebreaker scenario between the Lakers and the teams in the crowd between No. 2 and No. 8 in the conference.
As far as how tiebreakers work, the first one is head-to-head matchups. After that, if one team is a division winner then they get the tiebreaker. The Lakers are currently in the driver’s seat to win the Pacific Division. If another tiebreaker is needed, it will be division record, where the Lakers are fare very well at 12-3, and then conference record, where L.A. is 32-13.
If the tiebreaker can still not be determined then it would go to W-L percentage versus West playoffs team, then East playoff teams, and finally net points for all games.
The Rockets are the only team in this crowd that the Lakers have not yet settled their tiebreaker with. They currently sit 2.5 games back of Houston — two in the loss column — with one more matchup against them at home on Friday, April 11.
That game could have massive seeding implications, as that game will determine the tiebreaker between the two teams. Currently, their season series is tied 1-1. But they will only play three times, meaning the head-to-head tiebreaker is the only one that matters.
If the Lakers win that game, they have the tiebreaker. If they lose, Houston has it.
L.A. and Denver have faced four times this season, with each side winning twice. That means the head-to-head tiebreaker is moot.
The next layer is that a division winner always wins a tie over a non-division winner. It’s this reason that the Lakers are likely to have the tiebreaker over the Nuggets. The Nuggets will not be winning the Northwest due to the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Lakers currently have a two-game advantage over the Warriors for the Pacific.
Once L.A. clinches the division, they clinch the tiebreaker. If they do not wind up winning the division, they are still likely to have the tiebreaker over Denver due to a better in-conference record (currently 32-13 vs. 29-18).
Lakers vs. Warriors
The Lakers face the Warriors on Thursday night, but that game has no bearing on the tiebreaker. The Lakers are 3-0 against Golden State this season and have already locked up the tiebreaker. The Warriors would need to finish with a better record than the Lakers to pass them in the standings.
Lakers vs. Grizzlies
Similarly, the Lakers went 3-1 against the Grizzlies this season, giving them the tiebreaker alongside their 2.5-game advantage in the standings.
Lakers vs. Timberwolves
The Lakers are likely to have the tiebreaker over the Timberwolves via the same mechanisms as the Nuggets. Their season series is tied 2-2, but the Lakers are on the path to winning their division, while Minnesota is third in their division behind Denver and Oklahoma City.
The Lakers should also have the advantage in conference records if they ultimately do not win the division. L.A. is 32-13 and Minnesota is 31-19.
Lakers vs. Clippers
The Lakers won the season series 3-1 against the Clippers, meaning they own the tiebreaker there as well.
