The Los Angeles Lakers I have a lot of concerns about where June is championship concerns. But its winter counterpart? The Lakers have always taken care of business in this regard. Last season they had a dominant 6-0 victory They won the trophy in the first in-season tournament and opened this season with two more wins in the revamped NBA Cup. Overall, they were 8-0 in tournament play and the last undefeated team in the event's short history.
Well, so much for this flawless record.
On Tuesday, the Phoenix Suns emphatically handed the Lakers their first-ever tournament loss, 127-100, behind 72 combined points from the star trio Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal And Devin Booker. The end of the series itself is little more than a disappointment for the Lakers. However, it is a potential setback in this year's tournament.
There is now a three-way tie at the top of West Group B. The Lakers, Suns and Spurs are all 2:1. However, since the second tiebreaker is a points difference, the manner in which this specific loss falls through is quite significant. As it stands, the Suns have a 35-point lead over the Lakers in terms of plus-19 point differential. Sure, the 2-1 Spurs could beat the Suns on Dec. 3, push Phoenix to 2-2 and pit the Lakers against an opponent they have a head-to-head tiebreaker against, but that wouldn't necessarily solve their problems.
Why? Because the Lakers still have one more group game ahead of them, against the best team in the Western Conference Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder are 1-1 in their group, but still have a chance in their own group round in the form of a home game on December 3rd against the unfortunates Utah Jazz. If the Lakers lose to the Thunder, they would fall to 2-2 with a terrible point differential and be eliminated from the tournament.
Even if they beat the Thunder, the Spurs would either have to beat the Suns or win a tiebreaker against the other non-group winners in the Western Conference. This could prove problematic due to the point difference. The 2:1 outsider in West Group C the difference is plus 41. If they take care of business against them on their home floor Grizzlies Come December 3rd, this huge point difference makes them all but certain to be the Western Conference wild card team.
Essentially, the Lakers went from “undefeated in the entire history of this tournament” to “on the verge of elimination” in the space of a disastrous second half against the Suns. Certainly there have been more damaging individual losses in regular season history when it comes to playoff placement, but from a tournament perspective? This was one of the most significant group game defeats we have seen to date.
