{"id":691504,"date":"2026-04-01T08:27:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/691504\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T08:27:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:27:48","slug":"lakers-clinch-playoff-spot-after-phoenix-suns-loss-ahead-of-cavaliers-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/691504\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers Clinch Playoff Spot After Phoenix Suns’ Loss Ahead of Cavaliers Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA<\/a> revealed a significant team accomplishment on X before the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>‘ game against the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The Lakers are in third place in the Western Conference standings, which is a great starting point for the postseason. The squad enjoys home-court advantage over the sixth-place team, and the playoffs may begin shortly. As of this writing, the Houston Rockets<\/a> are in sixth place in the standings.<\/p>\n

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The Lakers received great news ahead of their Cavaliers game, which concerns their spot in the postseason. With the Phoenix Suns<\/a>‘ 115-111 defeat<\/a> against the Orlando Magic<\/a>, Los Angeles has clinched a playoff berth.<\/p>\n

\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers team celebrates Luka Doncic (77) Isabella Frias-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

(Isabella Frias-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

The NBA recognized the Lakers’ achievement on X.<\/p>\n

“With the Phoenix loss, the Lakers clinch a Western Conference top 6 seed in the NBA Playoffs presented by @Google!” the league announced.<\/p>\n

This will be the Lakers’ fourth-straight playoff appearance<\/a>. Since LeBron James<\/a> joined the team, they have been in the postseason five times and have won the NBA championship once. Aside from clinching a playoff spot, the Lakers have also won the Pacific Division for the second straight year.<\/p>\n

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The Lakers’ Strong Performance in March Helped Their Playoff Chance<\/p>\n

March has been a very productive stretch for the Lakers this season. Early in the year, there were questions about their chemistry, effort and potential playoff future. However, the team turned the narrative around this month, and has improved to a 49-26 record.<\/p>\n

This month, the Lakers have won 14 games, losing only twice. The team could improve that record on Tuesday, their final game for March.<\/p>\n

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Recently, LeBron James has praised the team’s chemistry, which has enabled them to perform effectively and stay on the same page. James discussed it on Monday’s 120-101 win against the Washington Wizards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a good place right now,\u201d James said after the win. \u201cThe chemistry is high. Everyone loves being around each other. We love playing for one another. We love being off the floor with one another. It\u2019s a good tight-knit group and we gotta carry that for the rest of the regular season then I feel like the postseason is a whole new season.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This month, star guard Luka Doncic<\/a> has carried the Lakers. Doncic has played 15 games<\/a> during the team’s recent stretch, averaging 37.2 points, 8.2 rebounds, 7.1 assists and 2.3 steals. Doncic has been unstoppable, leading the team to a competitive and ideal spot ahead of the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Related: Lakers’ JJ Redick Names Luka Doncic as MVP<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Apr 1, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA revealed a significant team accomplishment on X before the Los Angeles Lakers‘ game against the Cleveland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":691072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[7,193,194,185,251,150,368,6,76,2065,472,4045,604,468,574],"class_list":{"0":"post-691504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix-suns","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-lebron-james","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","14":"tag-luka-doncic","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-orlando-magic","17":"tag-phoenix","18":"tag-phoenix-suns","19":"tag-phoenixsuns","20":"tag-suns","21":"tag-washington-wizards","22":"tag-western-conference"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116328512102712874","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}