![\"Lakers,](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2269805129-e1775747637364.jpg\")
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Lakers forward Rui Hachimura (28), right, jshaes a laugh with teammates before a game against the Oklahoma Thunder at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA on Tuesday, April 7, 2026.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> are in prime position to seize the third seed from the Denver Nuggets<\/a> on the final day of the NBA\u2019s regular season.<\/p>\n On Saturday, the Nuggets announced that Nikola Jokic was questionable for Sunday\u2019s regular-season finale against the San Antonio Spurs<\/a>, while Tim Hardaway Jr., Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Cam Johnson, Christian Braun, Peyton Watson, and Spencer Jones<\/a> were ruled out.<\/p>\n If the shorthanded Nuggets fail to beat the Spurs, the Lakers \u2014 who have an easy matchup against the lottery-bound Utah Jazz<\/a> on Sunday \u2014 will pass them in the standings. In such a scenario, both teams will finish with identical records (53-29), and the Lakers hold the tiebreaker after winning the season series 2-1.<\/p>\n Lakers Playoffs Bracket<\/p>\n If the Lakers clinch the third seed, they will face the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> in the first round of the playoffs starting next weekend in a 3 vs. 6 matchup. They were previously expected to be a lock to face the Houston Rockets<\/a> in a 4 vs. 5 matchup.<\/p>\n The scenario spells good news for the Lakers as they\u2019d essentially avoid the mighty Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> in the second round \u2014 provided they can escape Minnesota.<\/p>\n ESPN\u2019s Tim Bontemps<\/a> believes the Nuggets are definitely tanking on Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd with Denver sitting everyone against San Antonio, here\u2019s what the West standings should be: 1. Oklahoma City 2. San Antonio 3. Los Angeles 4. Denver 5. Houston 6. Minnesota 7. Phoenix 8. Portland 9. LA Clippers<\/a> 10. Golden State.\u201d<\/p>\n Spurs Targeting Lakers in 2nd Round?<\/p>\n There is also a theory that the Spurs will go full throttle in Sunday\u2019s finale, as they\u2019d rather face the Lakers than the Nuggets in the second round of the playoffs. As such, they are incentivized to beat the Nuggets and send them crashing to the fourth seed.<\/p>\n \u201cDo the Spurs have something to play for after all?\u201d asked Don Harris.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the Lakers beat Utah and the Spurs beat Denver tomorrow, the Spurs would avoid Denver in the second round. They would face the winner of a banged up Lakers\/Twolves series. Maybe this is why Wemby left the door open when asked if it was safe to assume that he\u2019ll sit out.\u201d<\/p>\n Do the Spurs have something to play for after all? If the Lakers beat Utah and the Spurs beat Denver tomorrow, the Spurs would avoid Denver in the second round. They would face the winner of a banged up Lakers\/Twolves series. Maybe this is why Wemby left the door open when asked <\/p>\n Spurs beat writer Dusty Garza has a similar view of the situation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Spurs now have huge incentive to go beat Denver on Sunday. Why? Because a Nuggets loss combined with Lakers win vs. Utah could drop Denver to 4th seed and elevate the Lakers to 3rd in a tight seeding race,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n \u201cThis bracket manipulation avoids a direct second round clash with Denver while OKC would most likely have to face each other in the second round.\u201d<\/p>\n \ud83d\ude2e The Spurs now have huge incentive to go beat Denver on Sunday.<\/p>\n Why? Because a Nuggets loss combined with Lakers win vs. Utah could drop Denver to 4th seed and elevate the Lakers to 3rd in a tight seeding race.<\/p>\n This bracket manipulation avoids a direct second round clash with <\/p>\n Lakers head coach JJ Redick<\/a> hinted earlier that teams will likely manipulate the standings just to draw them in the first or second round.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure everybody wants to play us,\u201d Redick said on Friday, via ESPN.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s get that out there, like, everybody wants to play us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c[Teams] are in a position where they can start looking forward to potential second-round matchups as well,\u201d he added. \u201cWe see some of those teams rest their entire lineup basically, so they \u2014 we can\u2019t be concerned with all of that.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSai Mohan<\/a> covers the NBA for Heavy.com. Based in Portugal, Sai is a seasoned sports writer with nearly two decades of publishing experience, including bylines at Yardbarker, FanSided’s Hoops Habit, International Business Times, Hindustan Times and more. More about Sai Mohan<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Lakers\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Los Angeles Lakers forward Rui Hachimura (28), right, jshaes a laugh with teammates before a game against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-708805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-lakers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-la","10":"tag-la-lakers","11":"tag-lakers","12":"tag-lalakers","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangeleslakers","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116390698407477784","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708805","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=708805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}