Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James trailed the Minnesota Timberwolves 65-55 with about 9 minutes to go in the third quarter. The play-in game, which is played between the 7th and 8th-placed teams, is taking place at Crypto.com Arena.

With the Lakers trailing, social media users wondered if the 2020 champions would be knocked out of the playoffs race.

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No, they will not. If the Lakers lose the game against the Timberwolves, they will still have a chance to earn the eighth seed in the NBA Playoffs for their conference. The loser of the 7-8 game then plays the winner of the 9-10 game for the No. 8 and final seed in the playoffs. It means that the loser of the Lakers vs Timberwolves game will play the winner in the game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Los Angeles Lakers are trying to avoid falling further behind in the Western Conference standings. The Lakers are currently in seventh place, one game ahead of the eighth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies and two games ahead of the ninth-seeded Golden State Warriors. If the Lakers lose to the Timberwolves, they could be in danger of slipping into the play-in tournament, where they would have to win one or two games to secure a playoff spot.

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The Timberwolves, meanwhile, have nothing to lose and have been playing spoiler lately, winning four of their last five games. The Lakers will need to bring their best effort and hope that their stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis can stay healthy and lead them to a much-needed victory.

In the previous game between the Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat earlier, the Hawks won with a score of 116-105. Trae Young scored 25 points and Clint Capela grabbed 21 rebounds for the Hawks. The win secured the Hawks the 7-seed in the Eastern Conference for the NBA Playoffs