There were three keys for the Lakers to have a successful Sunday to close out the regular season.
The first: Leave their matchup against the Jazz healthy, which they did after limiting most of their main players to fewer than 30 minutes.
The second: Beat the lowly Jazz, which they accomplished with a 131-107 victory at Crypto.com Arena.
The third was out of their control since it was happening over 1,300 miles away: Hope the Spurs beat the Nuggets to give the Lakers an opportunity to jump to third place in the Western Conference standings.
Two of out of three will have to do, with the Nuggets securing the third seed in the West with their win over the Spurs, meaning the Lakers finished fourth in the standings.
Deandre Ayton and Rui Hachimura both had 22 point-10 rebound double-doubles for the Lakers against the Jazz.
LeBron James finished with 18 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals in 17 minutes, with James and Luke Kennard not playing in the second half.
Bronny James had 11 points and 4 assists off of the bench against the Jazz for his third double-digit scoring performance in his last six games.
Dalton Knecht, the Lakers 2024 first-round pick who’s mainly played garabe-time minutes this season, scored a season-high 17 points – all in the fourth.
The Lakers won their most number of games in an 82-game regular season since 2010-11, when they won 57 games ater back-to-back title-winning seasons.
That was when the Jazz beat the Heat in Miami, which was also the last time the Jazz won a game against a team that finished the season with a winning percentage of at least 50%.
The last time they beat a West team with a winning percentage of at least 50%?
And with an opportunity to ensure they finished with a bottom-four record in the league, and the best possible odds for the draft lottery, the chances of the Jazz leaving Southern California with a victory were slim-to-none.
Ayton shot 10 of 14 from the field, the most number of field goal attempts he’s had in a game since Jan. 30.
Sunday was his first 20 point-10 rebound double-double since the March 12 home win over the Bulls.
With his appearance in Sunday’s game, Jake LaRavia played in all 82 regular season games for the first time in his four-season NBA career.
He’s the 45th player in franchise history to play in all 82 regular season games.
The last Laker to play all 82 was Austin Reaves in 2023-24.
LaRavia was one of 18 players who entered Sunday with a chance to play 82 regular-season games.
The Lakers will play the Rockets in their first-round playoff series in the 4-5 seeds matchup.
