Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers

The game that got them there was, no doubt, inelegant. The Lakers beat the Jazz in OT, but blew a 14 point lead in the third quarter, and a 10 point lead with under two minutes to play in the process. Both LeBron James and Anthony Davis had to work a whole lot harder than was ideal, and while LeBron came up big in the OT, neither star for the Lakers was great down the stretch in regulation.

(The Jazz, it should be noted, clearly made a point of having someone who wasn't Davis beat them in the second half.)

But regardless, the Lakers clinched a spot in the play-in. At worst, they're in the top 10, and obviously still have a ton left to play for over their final three games. That starts tonight, with a critical game against the Clippers. Both teams are 41-38. The winner moves into the top 6, and gains the opportunity to avoid all that play-in tension completely. And now, there are big questions about who will be available for the Lakers in this game, thanks to the effort that was put in on Tuesday.

Now maybe Anthony Davis was going to sit. Maybe LeBron, too. (And that doesn't even get into D'Angelo Russell, who didn't suit up against the Jazz.) But the extra time and energy on the floor against the Jazz certainly didn't help.

The Clippers are vulnerable, and it's a shame the Lakers didn't maximize their opportunity to win Wednesday by taking care of business more definitively on Tuesday. But the only thing that would have been worse than that would have been losing on Tuesday, too.

HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky

SEGMENT 1: The Lakers have clinched a spot in the top 10. That's a big step in what has been a huge turnaround since the trade deadline.

SEGMENT 2: The game that actually got them there wasn't exactly inspiring.

SEGMENT 3: Is Wednesday's game so important that it should prompt some changes in medical protocols around LeBron and A.D.?

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