LeBron James was forced to take a break from playing and the Los Angeles Lakers have suffered. The defending NBA champions have dropped from second to seventh position in the Western Conference and could face the play-in tournament.
The Lakers do not even have a secured place in the postseason. Their current position is the lowest they have been since late December and opens the possibility of a play-in round that has now been implemented by the NBA for conference teams finishing in seventh to tenth place.
James has been a vocal critic of the play-in games, saying that whoever proposed the idea at NBA headquarters should have been fired. However, he has been off the court since the end of March, when he sustained an ankle injury in the Lakers’ game against the Atlanta Hawks. He has been absent from 23 of the last 25 Lakers games. And now, unless the team wins most of their remaining games, the play-in is an inevitability.
“Wherever we land, we’re confident,” said Lakers coach Frank Vogel after the team lost to Portland on Friday night. “Obviously, we want to finish in the top six. We still have five games to make up some ground if that’s possible.”
