The Lakers, who are now in ninth place in the West, are right in the heart of things in the Western Conference rankings, which are as competitive as ever.

In theory, you play an inferior opponent in order to be the highest seed possible. If you are a four seed or above, you can also guarantee home-court advantage for the duration of at least one series.

The seventh or eighth seed is great if you can’t make it to that part of the rankings because it will provide you home-court advantage in a single-elimination game.

These various possibilities have a lot of moving variables, but it appears that Anthony Davis is less worried with the team’s seeding and more focused on the team’s performance.

“It’s definitely about us, it’s just about getting in,” Davis remarked after the Lakers defeated the Thunder. “We’re not quite up to speed with the eight ball, but we’re close enough. We don’t really care what seed we are in; even if we don’t make it to the top six, we have to go through the play-in procedure again. We demonstrated last year that it is irrelevant. Postseason competition is a separate thing; you just strive to get in. We don’t approach it with the mindset that this matchup is better than this matchup. We simply focus on entering the game and taking out each opponent one at a time.

AD is correct; the Lakers did demonstrate their ability to go from a play-in to the Western Conference Finals, but it was an extremely unlikely run, and trying to duplicate it doesn’t seem like a good way to go.

Although the Western Conference is usually a difficult and competitive division, this year there are just three and a half games separating the fifth and tenth seeds. Given the caliber of opponents in the West, almost every game in this final stretch is crucial and difficult because all 10 playoff and play-in teams have winning records.

With two games remaining, the Lakers can still finish the season as a top-six seed. Therefore, it might only be a matter of concentrating on oneself, strengthening the team dynamic, and bringing back players like Gabe Vincent in March.

It will be difficult to remove them from playoff play if they are able to accomplish all those things. LeBron James is still a top scorer, Anthony Davis is having a season worthy of Defensive Player of the Year, and D’Angelo Russell has been shooting well lately, so these three players are a nightmare for opponents to deal with whether they are a sixth, seventh, or even lower seed.