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A loss to the Suns have knocked the Lakers out of the runnings.

Last night, the Los Angeles Lakers suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Phoenix Suns. The Suns came out swinging from the very start of the game, and it took everything the Lakers had just to hang on. Ultimately, they lost the game at 121-110. Due to this loss, as well as the San Antonio Spurs recent victory over the Denver Nuggets, the Lakers are now officially out of the runnings for this year’s Playoffs.

“Extremely disappointed,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said. “Disappointed for our fan base. Disappointed for the Buss family, who gave us all this opportunity and we want to play our part in bringing success to Laker basketball and we fell short.”

“We just didn’t get it done,” said Lakers power forward Carmelo Anthony. “We had the tools. Some things were out of our control — some things we could control, some things we couldn’t. And it’s nothing else more than we didn’t get it done. You can’t make no excuses about it. We just didn’t get it done.”

The 2021/22 Lakers have been officially eliminated from the play-in tournament! pic.twitter.com/IjlDdaowtX

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) April 6, 2022

A major contributor to the Lakers’ shaky performance this season is the rash of injuries and illness, not helped by recurring COVID-19 infections. Due to players being intermittedly sick and hurt, the starting lineup for the team changed a whopping 39 times, keeping the team from getting into a groove.

“This year, we had more starting lineups than wins,” said power forward Anthony Davis.