The Los Angeles Lakers are in prime position to seize the third seed from the Denver Nuggets on the final day of the NBA’s regular season.
On Saturday, the Nuggets announced that Nikola Jokic was questionable for Sunday’s regular-season finale against the San Antonio Spurs, while Tim Hardaway Jr., Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Cam Johnson, Christian Braun, Peyton Watson, and Spencer Jones were ruled out.
If the shorthanded Nuggets fail to beat the Spurs, the Lakers — who have an easy matchup against the lottery-bound Utah Jazz on Sunday — will pass them in the standings. In such a scenario, both teams will finish with identical records (53-29), and the Lakers hold the tiebreaker after winning the season series 2-1.
Lakers Playoffs Bracket
If the Lakers clinch the third seed, they will face the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs starting next weekend in a 3 vs. 6 matchup. They were previously expected to be a lock to face the Houston Rockets in a 4 vs. 5 matchup.
The scenario spells good news for the Lakers as they’d essentially avoid the mighty Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round — provided they can escape Minnesota.
ESPN’s Tim Bontemps believes the Nuggets are definitely tanking on Sunday.
“And with Denver sitting everyone against San Antonio, here’s what the West standings should be: 1. Oklahoma City 2. San Antonio 3. Los Angeles 4. Denver 5. Houston 6. Minnesota 7. Phoenix 8. Portland 9. LA Clippers 10. Golden State.”
Spurs Targeting Lakers in 2nd Round?
There is also a theory that the Spurs will go full throttle in Sunday’s finale, as they’d rather face the Lakers than the Nuggets in the second round of the playoffs. As such, they are incentivized to beat the Nuggets and send them crashing to the fourth seed.
“Do the Spurs have something to play for after all?” asked Don Harris.
“If the Lakers beat Utah and the Spurs beat Denver tomorrow, the Spurs would avoid Denver in the second round. They would face the winner of a banged up Lakers/Twolves series. Maybe this is why Wemby left the door open when asked if it was safe to assume that he’ll sit out.”
Spurs beat writer Dusty Garza has a similar view of the situation.
“The Spurs now have huge incentive to go beat Denver on Sunday. Why? Because a Nuggets loss combined with Lakers win vs. Utah could drop Denver to 4th seed and elevate the Lakers to 3rd in a tight seeding race,” he wrote on X.
“This bracket manipulation avoids a direct second round clash with Denver while OKC would most likely have to face each other in the second round.”
Lakers head coach JJ Redick hinted earlier that teams will likely manipulate the standings just to draw them in the first or second round.
“I’m sure everybody wants to play us,” Redick said on Friday, via ESPN.
“Let’s get that out there, like, everybody wants to play us.”
“[Teams] are in a position where they can start looking forward to potential second-round matchups as well,” he added. “We see some of those teams rest their entire lineup basically, so they — we can’t be concerned with all of that.
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