Entering the final weekend of the regular season, the NBA playoffs are starting to take shape, with just a few spots that are still being jockeyed for. Still, between injuries and missed opportunities, there is plenty of news around the league.
Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories of the week.
Lakers Miss Playoffs, LeBron Done For Season
For eight straight seasons, LeBron James made the NBA playoffs every single year. Since joining the Lakers in 2018, he has now missed it twice.
The Lakers were officially eliminated from playoff contention earlier this week in what has been an ugly season for LeBron, Anthony Davis, and Russell Westbrook. The team is currently 31-49, 32 games out of first place in the Western Conference.
With the Lakers out of the playoff picture, LeBron James will now sit out the rest of the season in order to rest his injured ankle. Despite the team’s rough season, James was stellar, averaging 30.3 points, 8.2 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1.1 blocks per game over 56 games.
Still, the Lakers could just find no continuity this season and the addition of Russell Westbrook last offseason proved to contribute to their struggles.
Expectations are that Westbrook could be moved this offseason, and Marc Stein of Substack reports that the Hornets could be a potential suitor.
In other Lakers’ news, the team has waived veteran Trevor Ariza. As the team expects to overturn the roster, this is an opportunity to get a youngster on it before the season ends.
Ariza played in just 24 games after needing ankle surgery and averaged 4 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.1 assists.
Morant Expected Back Soon
The Memphis Grizzlies have been on quite a roll lately, winning seven of their last ten, and they have moved up to second in the Western Conference. Even more impressive, they have found success despite having All-Star guard Ja Morant on the sidelines since March 18 with a knee injury.
The Grizzlies finish the season with a back-to-back against the Pelicans and Celtics this weekend, and it appears that Morant may be back in time for one of them. With the playoffs approaching, the team is hoping to have him get some game action before starting the grind of the playoffs.
This season, the 22-year-old Morant has averaged 27.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, 6.7 assists, and 1.2 steals in his third season with Memphis.
The Grizzlies enter the playoffs with the third-best odds of winning the Western Conference at +600 and the eighth-best odds of winning the NBA Finals at +1500.
Ball’s Season Ends With The Bulls
While Morant is returning for the Grizzlies, the Chicago Bulls officially announced that their point guard Lonzo Ball’s season is officially done.
Ball was acquired this offseason and played well in 35 games. He averaged 13 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.1 assists, and 1.8 steals per game for Chicago.
Unfortunately, he has been out since January 14 and had surgery on his injured knee on January 28. The hope was that he would be able to return for Chicago this season, but every time he started to ramp up his activity, he experienced pain and had to be shut down.
The Bulls have struggled down the stretch and have lost six of their last ten games. While they sit in sixth place and will avoid the play-in games in the playoffs, the Bulls have been awful against the top teams in the conference, and confidence they can make noise in the playoffs is waning.
They currently have the seventh-best odds of winning the East at +3200, and they are +8000 to win the NBA Finals.
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