Breaking news: the Los Angeles Lakers are in trouble.
The struggling team is once again without big man Anthony Davis as he tends to yet another injury – and it couldn’t come at a worse time.
The team is currently ninth in the West and struggling just to make the NBA Play-In Tournament.
But their upcoming schedule will make even achieving that goal very, very hard.
The Lakers have a tough road ahead with AD out 👀 pic.twitter.com/WiiYQDunKZ
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) February 25, 2022
As ESPN points out, the Lakers have one of the toughest remaining schedules in the regular season.
In fact, only two other teams – the Milwaukee Bucks and Chicago Bulls – have tougher schedules, based upon opponents’ win percentages.
How will the Lakers do it?
Tough Road Ahead
The Lakers will be facing off against the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night, their first game since the All-Star Game.
Following that, LA will battle the New Orleans Pelicans, Dallas Mavericks, Clippers again, Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets, and Washington Wizards.
While some of those teams will be incredibly challenging (the Mavericks and Warriors will especially be tough on the Lakers) others seem winnable.
But the Lakers have given up multiple games they should have won this year and there’s no guarantee they’ll take down teams such as the Spurs or Rockets.
Things only get harder after this upcoming stretch.
The Lakers will go toe-to-toe with the Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Philadelphia 76ers, and Utah Jazz in March.
The bad news is that the chance of them losing many of those games is high.
However, the good news is that if they do defeat those superior teams, it’ll prove that maybe they do have what it takes to win the Play-In Tournament and stake their claim in the playoffs.
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