The Los Angeles Lakers lost the eighth game out of their last ten by falling to the Portland Trail Blazers. This loss pushed the defending NBA champions down to the play-in tournament zone.
In addition to that, the Mavericks and the Blazers — two teams above the Lakers — hold tiebreakers against the Purple and Gold. With just five regular season games left to play, it will be a difficult task for the Lakers to climb back to the sixth place.
Point guard Alex Caruso struggled in finding positives in the tough loss to the Blazers. “There’s no moral victory,” he said, per Ryan Ward. “We’re trying to get better as a team. … We play the game to win. … Our team was a little gutted after this.”
Lakers star forward Anthony Davis expressed similar sentiment, calling the loss ‘tough’. The team will face the Phoenix Suns (number 2 in the Western Conference) next.
