The Los Angeles Lakers had been one of the hottest teams in the NBA over the past 10 days, and came into Friday’s game riding a five game winning streak. Due to their improved play, they were able to shorten the gap between them and the 8th seed in the Western Conference, but they took a step back in their effort to make it out of the Play-In Tournament in their game against the Pacers.
Lakers Lose To Pacers, Snap 5 Game Winning Streak
wtf y’all doing @Lakers
— LakeShowYo (@LakeShowYo) March 30, 2024
Los Angeles had just beaten Indiana 5 days prior, in a game that featured nearly 300 regulation points between the two sides. It was a different story on Friday, though, as the Lakers had their lowest scoring output of the season in a 109-90 road loss to snap the streak. LeBron James and Anthony Davis combined to score 40, but it wasn’t nearly enough to outdo a balanced scoring effort from the Pacers.
With the loss, the Lakers miss out on a golden opportunity to make up some ground in the Western Conference. They entered the day just 1.5 games back of the Kings, who were sitting in the 8th spot, and Sacramento suffered a defeat at the hands of the Mavericks in the final game of the evening.
The lead remains 1.5 instead of just a half game, and the win by the Warriors moved them to within 1.5 games of LA on the back end.
LA Has 6th Easiest Remaining Schedule In The NBA
The Lakers finish off their road trip with three straight sub-.500 teams in BKN, TOR and WAS but LeBron James says that focusing on their records “will get you burnt every time” pic.twitter.com/5qbT3iQl5E
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) March 30, 2024
The Lakers will have a chance to bounce back in the coming days. They still have to finish out their current six game road trip, but will do so by playing against three sub-.500 teams in the Nets, Raptors, and Wizards.
When it comes to strength of remaining schedule, Los Angeles actually has the 6th easiest remaining path based on opponent’s winning percentage. The Warriors are right behind them at #7, and the rest of the teams vying for position in the West all have tougher opponents the rest of the way.
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