All Lakers Tiebreaker Situations Against Western Conference Contenders

The Los Angeles Lakers find themselves in the midst of an insanely Western Conference tight playoff race.

While no one is catching the 64-12 Oklahoma City Thunder, winners of 11 straight, only 5.5 games separate the No. 2-seeded Houston Rockets (50-27) from the No. 8-seeded Memphis Grizzlies (44-32).

At 46-29, the Lakers have vaulted up to the West's No. 3 seed, although they're three games behind the Rockets with just seven games left on their 2024-25 regular season slate. The 47-30 Nuggets are mere percentage points worse than the Lakers for the West's No. 4 seed.

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It's looking increasingly likely that potentially several West playoff teams could finish the year with the same record. So how do all the tiebreakers shake out between the Lakers and the rest of their non-Thunder playoff competition?

Houston Rockets

The Lakers and Rockets are tied 1-1 in their current season series, making their Crypto.com Arena matchup on April 11 pretty critical. Five-time All-NBA First Team Los Angeles guard Luka Doncic properly cooked Houston during their first encounter on Tuesday.

🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/Bzc9jmhKJK
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) April 1, 2025

There aren't any complicated tiebreaker scenarios for Los Angeles to deal with, the team just needs to beat the Rockets.

Denver Nuggets

Denver and L.A. have split their season series, 2-2. When clubs split a season series, the tiebreaker falls to whichever team has won its division. Because the Lakers are currently up by two games on the 44-31 Golden State Warriors, they are the favorites to take the Pacific Division. The Nuggets, the West's No. 3 seed, have no hope of catching Oklahoma City in the Northwest Division.

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If the Warriors somehow surpass the Lakers, the next tiebreaker falls to the two clubs' in-conference records. The Lakers are 32-13 in the West, while Denver is 29-18.

Golden State Warriors

The Lakers are 3-0 against the No. 5-seeded Warriors, so whatever happens in their Thursday night TNT matchup, L.A. has won their season series already and thus, their tiebreaker.

LA vs The Bay.

🕖: 7:00 PM PT
📺: @SpectrumSN, TNT, TRUTV, MAX
📱: Spectrum SportsNet+
📻: ESPN LA 710/1330 KWKW

Presented by @PechangaCasino pic.twitter.com/dcxWvWOeHO
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) April 3, 2025

The matchup tips off at 7 p.m. PT.

Minnesota Timberwolves

Minnesota, the West's sixth seed, and Los Angeles have split their season series 2-2, but Minnesota ranks behind the Thunder and Nuggets in their division.

L.A. Clippers

Los Angeles went 3-1 against James Harden and co. during the regular season, so they'd have the tiebreaker edge. The Lakers are also 2.5 games up on the 44-32 Clippers — the No. 7 seed in the conference — by record.

Memphis Grizzlies

The Lakers have won their season series against Memphis, 3-1, so this is already sewn up. The Grizzlies are currently the West's No. 8 seed.

The 38-39 Dallas Mavericks, 36-40 Sacramento Kings, 35-41 Phoenix Suns, 33-43 Portland Trail Blazers, and 32-44 San Antonio Spurs all could technically still land in the West's top 10, meaning all still have a shot at the playoffs — but none of those teams have any shot at catching the Lakers' record this year, so the tiebreaker issue is irrelevant.

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