My Annoying Hunt for Lakers Playoff Info
Alright folks, figured I’d share how I totally fumbled around today trying to find out one simple thing: Are the Lakers making the playoffs this year? I know, it sounds stupid easy, but man, it got messy fast.
First instinct? I opened up my phone and just typed “lakers playoffs 2024” straight into the search bar like a regular person. Big mistake. Got slammed with a bazillion articles:
- “Lakers PLAYOFF HOPES DASHED After Shocking Loss!” (sounded bad)
- “LeBron CONFIRMS Lakers Aiming for Top 4 Seed!” (sounded good?)
- “Breaking: Lakers Trades that Could SAVE Their Playoff Run!”
Seriously, it felt like reading conflicting gossip rags. Nothing clear. Just noise and panic takes.
Scrolled past the articles thinking maybe the actual scores or standings would show up. Nope. Got video highlights from last week’s game and an ad for Lakers jerseys. Not helpful right now!
Remembered the Lakers have their own website. Hopped on there. Big purple page, player pics everywhere… where do they even put the current season status? Clicked “News.” Clicked “Schedule.” Mostly just ticket sales and game recaps. Buried deep in the “Schedule” tab I finally spotted “NBA Western Conference Standings.” Clicked it. Boom. Redirected straight to the official NBA website. Well, that was pointless.
Okay, * it is. Landed on the main page. Scoreboard, highlights… busy! Spotted a tiny little link near the top that said “Standings.” Jackpot! Finally seeing all the teams and their records. Scanned down the Western Conference list. Saw Golden State, Dallas, Phoenix… kept scrolling… Where are the darn Lakers? Found them! Position was mid-pack. Record looked okay… but is mid-pack good enough for playoffs?
Still wasn’t sure! Saw a “Games Back” column. Made my head hurt trying to calculate playoffs in my mind. Then I spotted the magic letters: “GB.” Next to that was a number, but more importantly, some teams had a little asterisk next to their name and the magic word: “Clinched” or sometimes “X – Clinched Playoff Berth”.
- Scanned for the Lakers.
- No “X.” No “Clinched.”
- But also no “Eliminated.”
- Felt a small wave of relief. Still alive!
Double-checked against the “Playoff Picture” section I saw after scrolling some more on *. Lists the current matchups. Lakers weren’t in it yet, but listed as a potential play-in team fighting for spots 7-10.
So the fast way? Stop reading the hype and panicky articles. Forget team sites. Go directly to the source: * Standings. Look for your team. See if they have the “X” or “Clinched” status. If they don’t, look for that “GB” number under “Playoffs” or see if they’re listed in the Playoff Picture/Play-in section. No fancy calculation needed on your part. Takes maybe 30 seconds once you know where to look. Way faster than my wild goose chase through rumor mills!
Glad I finally figured this out. Saves a ton of time. Lakers are fighting, but nothing’s locked in yet. Just gotta keep checking that standings page!
