On March 28, Beijing time, the Lakers lost 108-116 in the away challenge to the Pelicans, which is certainly a very important game for the Lakers, because after the loss to the Pelicans, the Lakers' record has dropped to 31 wins and 43 losses and ranked 10th in the West.
At the end of the game, LeBron James, who played 42 minutes, had a team-high 39 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists, but such a brilliant performance still could not lead the Lakers to the final victory. After all, in addition to James, who scored 39 points and Westbrook with 18 points, the other 3 starters in the Lakers' starting lineup only scored 12 points in total.
After losing this game, the Lakers' playoff prospects in 10th place in the West are not ideal, because the Lakers can only lead the 11th Spurs in the West by 1 win difference, and the team is still 0.5 wins behind the Pelicans in the 9th Place in the West after losing this key game with the Pelicans.
What's worse is that the Lakers have 8 games left this season, and even if the Lakers can have a fairly good form next, they will also face a more difficult schedule (of course, some teams may let the stars rest, especially in teams that have played a good record so far this season). The following is the schedule of the Lakers' next 8 games (Beijing time):
Mavericks: March 30
JAZZ: April 1st
Pelicans: April 2
Nuggets: April 4
Sun: April 6
Warriors: April 8th
Thunder: April 9
Nuggets: April 11
Almost all of the above are teams that have performed very well this season, of which the Lone Rangers, Jazz, Nuggets, Suns and Warriors are all top 6 teams in the Western Conference, even if like the Suns and Warriors or even the last game against the Nuggets, these teams may let the team be the home star truce, but even if the role players, with the depth of the Suns, Warriors and Nuggets lineup, the Lakers may not have a chance to win the game.
So the current situation is that whether the Lakers can keep the playoff seat will be a problem.