Anthony Davis gets real on being 10th place in the West.

Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Ahead of a pivotal matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday, Lakers star Anthony Davis spoke honestly about his team’s situation at 10th in the standings. Davis, who has been the heartbeat of the Lakers this season, says that they aren’t worried about the standings or whoever their first-round opponent may be. Instead, Davis claims the Lakers are taking it one game at a time, and they know what must be done to keep their title hopes alive.

“At the end of the day, no matter where you are in the standings, you still have to win,” said Davis via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “For us, it’s about taking it one game at a time. Whether that’s 10th place, ninth place, or eighth, no matter where you are. You can be the first seed, but you still have to win basketball games. So that’s our mindset. No matter where we are, we just got to win.”

The Lakers were as high as 7th within the past few weeks, but a pair of losses to the Timberwolves and Warriors moved them down to 10th. Despite the unfortunate slide, Davis says the Lakers are in a good place overall.

“I think we’re in a great place,” Davis said. “The two games that we lost, I played a quarter and then LeBron James didn’t play one. So there’s nothing we can do about that now. Our job is to focus on these next two — the game tonight and then on Sunday against New Orleans — and then just kind of see what happens, where we stand after that. And then go win basketball games.”

If the standings stay as they are, the best the Lakers could hope for is a scenario where they have to win two games on the road to secure a first-round matchup against the Denver Nuggets — the same team that swept them last May.

The Los Angeles Lakers Have An Uphill Climb To The Finals

With averages of 24.5 points, 12.6 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks per game, Anthony Davis is having, arguably, his best season yet as a Laker. Most impressively, he’s managed to play in 74 games despite an extensive injury history.

Curiously, it hasn’t made much of a difference in the win/loss column this season. Even with LeBron and Davis having a fine campaign together, the Lakers can’t cross 50 wins, and they will be competing in the play-in for the second consecutive year.

Even if they do manage to come out of the play-in, they’ll have the 8th seed, meaning a matchup against the defending champs and their soon-to-be 3x MVP. As good as D’Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura have been, the Lakers would be underdogs in almost every series in the West, especially against the Nuggets, who are just too good right now.

Then again, similar things were said last year before the Lakers shocked the world and won two playoff series. When it comes to this team and these stars, anything is possible, but the Lakers are working at a major disadvantage from the start, and it will take near-perfect execution on both ends to keep their season alive through April.