{"id":1410644,"date":"2022-03-30T14:59:36","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T18:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1410644"},"modified":"2022-03-30T14:59:40","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T18:59:40","slug":"lakers-drop-out-of-play-in-tournament-lebron-james-in-danger-of-missing-playoffs-for-fourth-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lakers-drop-out-of-play-in-tournament-lebron-james-in-danger-of-missing-playoffs-for-fourth-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Drop Out Of Play-In Tournament, LeBron James In Danger Of Missing Playoffs For Fourth Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flakers-drop-out-of-play-in-tournament-lebron-james-in-danger-of-missing-playoffs-for-fourth-time%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1410644&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/03\/GettyImages-1388424189.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>Things aren\u2019t looking too good for the Los Angeles Lakers with just seven games to play in the regular season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>On Tuesday night, the Lakers were blown out in Dallas, losing to the Mavericks 128-110. It\u2019s their third consecutive loss, dropping them to 31-44, and out of the play-in tournament.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Playing without LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the Lakers were down 82-56 at halftime, and allowed Mavericks point guard Luka Doncic to record a 30-point triple-double.\u00a0<\/span><span>The loss dropped the Lakers into a tie with the San Antonio Spurs \u2014 the two teams share identical records \u2014 but San Antonio holds the tiebreaker, moving them into the 10th and final play-in spot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cNot good enough. In any way,\u201d Lakers head coach Frank Vogel <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/sports\/lakers\/story\/2022-03-29\/lakers-in-11th-place-after-big-loss-dallas-mavericks\"><span>said<\/span><\/a><span> according to the LA Times. \u201cThis is one of the most prolific offenses in the league. The Luka Doncic pick-and-roll is as tough to prepare for, is as tough of an action to slow down, as any in the league. And with a lot of guys out we had to come in and execute at a high level.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAnd we executed very poorly to start the game and really that whole first half, with what our game plan was,\u201d Vogel continued. \u201cAnd then as we tried to adjust to look at some Plan Bs and Plan Cs, we just didn\u2019t execute well enough and play with enough toughness, IQ, intelligence, focus and fight in that half. So, not acceptable and just a poor performance across the board. Coaches, players, everybody.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>James missed the game with a sprained ankle suffered in Sunday\u2019s loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. It was the 20th game James has missed this season, as the four-time NBA champion is in danger of missing the playoffs for just the fourth time in his 19 NBA seasons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>First-year Laker Russell Westbrook had 25 points, eight rebounds, and six assists on the night, but posted a minus-25 in his 32 minutes of playing time. As has been the case for most of the season, Westbrook had a tense back and forth with a reporter following the loss.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>When asked what the Lakers could do moving forward in order to improve, Westbrook didn\u2019t offer much of an answer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cNothing man. Nothing,\u201d Westbrook said \u2026 \u201cBecause it doesn\u2019t. What does it change? We\u2019ve still got games to play. Other teams have games to play. We still have to play teams that\u2019s above us in the play-in. Doesn\u2019t really change much.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Westbrook then asked the reporter what he thought needed to change.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWinning,\u201d the reporter responded.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cOK, that\u2019s obvious,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat do you think should change?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThat\u2019s fine. You got an answer to winning? You got an answer to winning?\u201d Westbrook said before getting up from his seat and continuing the conversation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Russell Westbrook had an altercation with a reporter and walked out of his postgame interview \ud83d\ude33<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/iIz6vNHsx8\">pic.twitter.com\/iIz6vNHsx8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 PointsBet Sportsbook (@PointsBetUSA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PointsBetUSA\/status\/1508997180203413514?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 30, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span>The Lakers face an uphill battle if they are to avoid missing the playoffs completely, with six of their remaining seven games coming against current playoff teams. Considering the Lakers were once preseason favorites to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals, the 2021-2022 season could wind up being James\u2019 most disappointing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to sports@dailywire.com.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Enter for the chance to hang out with Gina Carano at the premiere of her new Daily Wire movie, Terror on the Prairie! Two lucky Daily Wire members will be given the complete red carpet treatment \u2013 free airfare, hotel, premiere car service, and exclusive merch. Daily Wire members can click\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/redcarpet\">here<\/a>\u00a0to enter for a chance to win. If you\u2019re not a Daily Wire member yet, click\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/dailywire.com\/subscribe\">here<\/a>\u00a0to join us so you can win this once-in-a-lifetime experience.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Things aren\u2019t looking too good for the Los Angeles Lakers with just seven games to play in the regular season.\u00a0On Tuesday night, the Lakers were blown out in Dallas, losing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1410644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1410644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1410644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1410644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1410644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1410644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}