Can the Los Angeles Lakers still make it to the 2021-22 NBA playoffs?

Before the 2021-22 NBA regular seasonbegan, it looked like the Los Angeles Lakers were ready to come back stronger to fight for the championship. However, with only a few games left for the postseason, the outlook is far from encouraging.

Nothing has gone according to plan for the Purple and Gold, whose offseason moves fellshort of expectations. Even with LeBron James at his best, the Lakers have struggled to get results and the price they could pay for itcould be much more expensive than expected.

Frank Vogel‘s team heads into the final stretch of the regular season in a tough spot, with its destiny not in its hands anymore. However, the season isn’t over for the Lakers yet and there’sa small chance they can make it into the postseason.

Can the Lakers still make it to the postseason?

The answer is yes, they can.But in order to do that, they not only need to do their homework but also wait for other results. With four games left in the regular season, the Lakers are two wins behind the San Antonio Spurs for the last play-in berth.

So, they may not have chances to automatically qualify for the playoffs anymore but they can get there via the play-in tournament as long as they overtake the Spurs in 10th place of the Western Conference standings. This is what the battle for 10th looks like:

This is what the Lakersneed to qualify forthe play-in tournament for a place in the playoffs:

• Lakers win three games, Spurs lose all four games (Lakers finish 10th with 34 wins, Spurs 11th with 33 wins)
• Lakers win four games, Spurs win just one game (Lakers end with 35 wins, Spurs with 34)

To clinch a spot in the play-in tournament, theLakers must finish with more wins than the Spurs because San Antonio holds the tie-breaker.It’s notthe ideal scenario as the Lakers don’t depend on themselves, they need to win a number of games and hope that San Antonio concedes losses. Besides, regardless of how the Lakers finish the season, they’d be eliminated from play-in contention if Spurs win two games. These are the four games left for each team:

Lakers next games

April 5 at Suns
April 7 at Warriors
April 8 vs. Thunder
April 10 at Nuggets

Spurs next games

April 5 at Nuggets
April 7 at Timberwolves
April 9 vs Warriors
April 10 vs Mavericks