The Los Angeles Lakers will fight to maintain the Western Conference’s final playoff spot without their two superstars on Tuesday.
According to Spectrum SportsNet’s Mike Trudell, the Lakers officially ruled out LeBron James and Anthony Davis for tonight’s road game against the Dallas Mavericks.
James sprained his ankle during Sunday’s 116-108 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. His injury came just as the team hoped to welcome back Davis, who hasn’t played since suffering right mid-foot sprain on February 16.
With eight games remaining, the Lakers only lead the San Antonio Spurs by half a game for 10th place in the Western Conference. They’re in grave danger of falling out of the play-in tournament, with little hope of climbing any higher than ninth.
Following this latest injury setback, Lakers fans were ready to throw in the towel on Twitter.
20 point loss coming https://t.co/uXamdtp6Up
— Mark (@VegaM94) March 29, 2022
Not making the play in fr https://t.co/p7cbpS8w5b
— 🆎♘ (@Ay0oAB_) March 29, 2022
Yep we out https://t.co/jITA6RUEGg
— Kareem (@Kareem_is_it) March 29, 2022
Waving the white flag on the season but we gave up long ago https://t.co/iElntFgfvk
— Beige Piccolo (@P_Huddy) March 29, 2022
Just put us out of our misery already basketball Gods https://t.co/j8W3TdBdJt
— $toop $upreme❄️ (@CodenameVick) March 29, 2022
Given their recent play, it’s hard to blame fans for being so pessimistic. The Lakers have dropped 15 of their last 20 games, including four losses by 20 points or more.
While the Lakers and Spurs have split their four head-to-head meetings, the Spurs hold the tiebreaker via a superior Western Conference record. That means a loss to Dallas drops Los Angeles out of the playoff picture.
That’s a disastrous scenario for a team with four future Hall of Famers and championship aspirations, but one looking more feasible.
The post LeBron James, Anthony Davis Out For Mavericks Game: Fans React appeared first on The Spun.