Tonight, the Los Angeles Lakers face the Golden State Warriors, with their playoff positioning hanging precariously in the balance. The Lakers and Clippers are tied in the loss column with four games left, and with two of the four against superb competition, the other two out of the four need to be victories if the purple and gold is to hold on to any hope of maintaining that division crown. Luckily, the "other 2" are two of the worst teams in the league. Tonight's opponent, the Golden State Warriors, have lost 12 of their last 14 games.

With Memphis all but locked into the 5 seed, ceding playoff position is definitely not what the Lakers want to do, but cede it they almost certainly will if they let a scrub like Golden State crash their party. The Clippers have won 6 of 7, including TWO victories over OKC, and 12 of 14 overall. Their remaining schedule has some losable games, but they are closing the season strong, which means the Lakers will need to do the same to hold them off. One loss over the next four games is probably OK, but two could very well be curtains for the Lakers hopes of holding off little brother.

There's really not much else to know about tonight's contest. Kobe Bryant likely won't play for the 7th consecutive contest, but that would be a laughable excuse in a game in which the Warriors will (by design) be without their four most established players. I just took a look at the list of players who contributed to Golden State's Wednesday night loss to the Spurs ... its embarrassing. Sometimes, life offers you a freebie. The Lakers would be foolish to turn theirs down.