15. Los Angeles Lakers (28-29)
It’s somewhat surprising to see that the Los Angeles Lakers are under .500 heading into the NBA All-Star break, but at the same time it isn’t considering what this team has had to endure over the last couple of months.
Lonzo Ball has missed the last couple of weeks, LeBron James missed more than a month from Christmas Day through February and the team simply hasn’t been able to recover. The Lakers are three games back of the final playoff spot in the West, but I don’t think anyone really expects not to be included in the post-season.
It won’t be easy, but I have to believe LeBron will get his team in line for a late-season push that will manage to get this team into the top 8 in the West. Whether they can actually make noise once they get there is an entirely different question, however.