Coming into Tuesday, the Los Angeles Lakers were 9-0 all-time in Emirates NBA Cup play. They won the inaugural in-season tournament last year, and they looked to take another step toward winning it again when they took on the Phoenix Suns on the road.
After a decent first half, however, they put forth a weak third quarter in which they were outscored 36-18. That turned out to be the major difference in their 127-100 loss, which was their third in a row.
The Lakers are 10-7 on the season, which is still a solid record, especially considering the doom-and-gloom prognostications pundits had for them when the season started. But they have taken a big step back in the Emirates NBA Cup West Group B standings.
Here are the standings for that group after Tuesday’s slate of games:
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Suns: 2-1, plus-19 point differential, 330 total points
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Lakers: 2-1, minus-16 point differential, 344 total points
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San Antonio Spurs: 2-1, plus-14 point differential, 353 total points
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Oklahoma City Thunder: 1-1, plus-10 point differential, 203 total points
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Utah Jazz: 0-3, minus-27 point differential, 345 total points
That minus-16 point differential is a killer for Los Angeles, since point differential is the first tiebreaker when determining which team wins its group.
It will host the Oklahoma City Thunder, who currently have the best overall season record in the Western Conference, on Friday night in its final game of group play this season. A loss there, in all likelihood, would eliminate it from moving on to the knockout round, although each conference will have one wild-card team in the knockout round among the teams that don’t win their group.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Where the Lakers stand in Emirates NBA Cup standings after Tuesday
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