After another loss on Monday night, this time to the Los Angeles Clippers, the Los Angeles Lakers are pretty well out of the playoff race barring a miracle. The team has been on a losing skid as of late and the Clippers were one of those teams that the Lakers were battling for one of the final playoff spots. LeBron James and company ended up losing 113-105 and are now 5.5 games back of a playoff spot with 18 games to go which means their chances of actually turning things around is slim. If the Lakers are convinced they can't make the playoffs, their best hope is to go on a bit of a tanking spree and increase their draft lottery odds. This idea compelled reporters to ask LeBron if he sees himself sitting any of the remaining games, an idea he promptly shut down.
"That would take a lot of convincing from Luke [Walton] on up," James said according to ESPN. "You kind of look at the rest of the games, and look at the percentages of what's going on there in the future, and see what makes more sense for not only me but the team itself as well."
The team currently sits at a record of 30-34 and are now 10th in the Western Conference. At one point this season, the Lakers were fourth in the Conference and were quickly becoming favorites within the league.