Lakers Get Seeding Boost

The Los Angeles Lakers entered the regular season’s final day in control of the Western Conference’s No. 4 seed, with Denver still one game ahead for No. 3. (nba.com) That put extra weight on Denver’s Sunday game at San Antonio, because the Nuggets were listed without Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun, while Nikola Jokić was questionable with a right-wrist issue. (heavy.com) The standings NBA.com published early Sunday showed Denver at 53-28 and the Lakers at 52-29, with Houston locked into No. 5 and Minnesota locked into No. 6. (nba.com) That meant one Denver loss, paired with a Lakers win, would flip the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds on the last day of the 2025-26 regular season. The league’s tiebreaker rules start with head-to-head record for two-team ties. (nba.com) The bracket difference is immediate: NBA.com’s playoff picture had Denver lined up with Minnesota as the No. 3 seed and the Lakers lined up with Houston as the No. 4 seed entering Sunday. (nba.com) The league had already locked Oklahoma City into No. 1 and San Antonio into No. 2, so the only unsettled playoff seeds at the top of the West were Nos. 3 and 4. (nba.com) Los Angeles had already clinched a playoff berth, avoiding the SoFi Play-In Tournament that starts April 14. The first round of the playoffs begins April 18. (nba.com) Denver’s injury report mattered because the Nuggets were playing the second night of a back-to-back, and the league requires same-day updates for those games by 1 p.m. local time. (official.nba.com) By Sunday morning, the Lakers’ team standings page still showed them in fourth place at 52-29, one game behind Denver and one game ahead of Houston. (nba.com) So the Lakers’ boost was simple: Denver’s depleted lineup gave Los Angeles a live path to move up one spot, and one spot is the difference between opening the postseason as the West’s No. 3 or No. 4 seed. (nba.com)