James finished with 28 points, 12 assists and six rebounds helped the Lakers secure at least the No. 4 seed in the uber-tough Western Conference.<\/p>\n
The Lakers still have a shot at the third seed if they beat the Utah Jazz at home on Sunday and if the third-place Denver Nuggets lose at San Antonio on Sunday, the final day of the regular season. Because the Lakers won the tiebreaker over the Nuggets, they would get the higher seed over Denver if the two teams finish with identical records.<\/p>\n
Whoever the Lakers face in the playoffs, coach JJ Redick believes teams want to face his group because of their injuries. Doncic and Reaves are not expected back for the first-round of the postseason.<\/p>\n
The Lakers, however, do still have James \u2014 and he has been masterful.<\/p>\n
James was 10 for 16 from the field against the Suns and two for two from three-point range.<\/p>\n
Over his last three games in this new role, James has averaged 24.6 points, 12.6 assists and 7.6 rebounds, shooting 60% from the field and 46% from three-point range.<\/p>\n
![\"Lakers](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775886379_969_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Lakers guard Luke Kennard, center, controls the ball in front of Phoenix guards Amir Coffey, left, and Jamaree Bouyea during the first half Friday.<\/p>\n
(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
He was on point from the beginning against the Suns.<\/p>\n
James quickly went by a defender on a back-door cut, took a pass from Luke Kennard and threw down a two-handed, rim-rattling dunk. James flexed in front of his teammates on the bench, who stood to give their approval. The Suns called time out with four minutes and 53 seconds left in the first quarter, giving the fans more time to appreciate what James was still able to do at 41 years old.<\/p>\n
The Lakers are 52-29 and are confident they\u2019ll be ready to face any opponent in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775886384_928_hqdefault.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure everybody wants to play us. Let\u2019s get that out there, like, everybody wants to play us,\u201d Redick said before the game. \u201cProbably teams that are in a position where they can start looking forward to potential second-round matchups as well. … Again, I\u2019ll say what I told the team yesterday, what I told you guys after the game, we have to figure out the formula and the belief for this group to be successful. And so that\u2019s our focus for tonight and that\u2019s going to be our focus on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notes: Lakers backup center Jaxson Hayes missed his third straight game with left foot soreness, but he has been making progress. \u201cHope to have him back Sunday,\u201d Redick said. \u201cBut yeah, he\u2019s still day to day.\u201d … The Lakers waived guard Kobe Bufkin. It means the Lakers have a roster spot available to sign another player for the playoffs. \u201cWe\u2019re evaluating all the options we have,\u201d Redick said. … Marcus Smart, who had missed nine straight games with a right ankle contusion, had six points in 18 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ball is back in LeBron James\u2019 hands, and he is thriving in his \u201cnew\u201d role as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[1013,7,20693,142,1035,300,185,368,6,1394,2065,472,4045,88542,65,1841,1396,604,396,3153],"class_list":{"0":"post-707944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix-suns","8":"tag-austin-reaves","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-final-day","11":"tag-game","12":"tag-injury","13":"tag-lakers","14":"tag-lebron-james","15":"tag-luka-doncic","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-no","18":"tag-phoenix","19":"tag-phoenix-suns","20":"tag-phoenixsuns","21":"tag-playoff-seed","22":"tag-point","23":"tag-role","24":"tag-sunday","25":"tag-suns","26":"tag-team","27":"tag-three-point-range"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116384498493482398","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707944","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=707944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}