Warrior Loss Is the Clincher for Lakers
The Lakers clinched a playoff berth Thursday night when the Trail Blazers beat the Golden State Warriors, 94-89, at Portland, Ore., making a foregone conclusion official with a little more than three weeks left in the season.
The sixth team to earn a postseason berth and the fourth from the Western Conference, the Lakers appear headed to a first-round matchup with Houston in what would be the most attractive opening series of the playoffs. It would take a massive collapse to change that, with the Lakers 6 1/2 games behind Utah for No. 3--5 1/2 games in the standings and one more since the Jazz has the tiebreaker--and the Rockets 6 1/2 games ahead of No. 6 Phoenix.
In the race for home-court advantage, the Lakers are two games ahead of the slumping Rockets with 14 to play, although it’s actually a one-game cushion because Houston won the season series (the first tiebreaker) and can afford to finish even in the standings.
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