By Tom Ziller – NBA Contributor

Read More: San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs at Los Angeles Lakers, Apr 12, 2011 10:30 PM EDT

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Apr 12, 2011 - The Los Angeles Lakers have lost five straight games, and are at distinct risk of landing in the No. 3 or even No. 4 spot in the West bracket of the 2011 NBA Playoffs unless they can beat the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday (10:30 p.m. ET, TNT). The Lakers trail the Dallas Mavericks by a half-game in the race for No. 2; if L.A. beat the Spurs and the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday, the champs will claim No. 2 and home court advantage until the conference finals.

That’s a distinct if, though, considering the five losses L.A. has suffered in the past week and change. If L.A. loses both remaining games — Wednesday’s tilt in Sacramento could be the final game that city ever sees, and is sold out — and Oklahoma City wins on Wednesday, the Lakers could find themselves opposing the Denver Nuggets in the first round and the Spurs in the second round. Denver is one of the teams that has vanquished the Lakers during this losing streak.

The Spurs lead the season series with L.A. 2-1, as the Lakers won in San Antonio last month. The Spurs could be playing for something of their own; they need at least one win to guarantee at least a chance for home court advantage in the NBA Finals against prospective opponent Chicago, and two wins to definitely guarantee it. Gregg Popovich hasn’t tipped his hand as to whether he’ll fight for that distinction, but it wouldn’t be a surprise either way.

For Spurs coverage, check out Pounding The Rock. For more on the Lakers, visit Silver Screen And Roll and SB Nation Los Angeles.

Feel free to leave your comments below.

The Associated Press

Posted: Apr 12, 2011 9:38 AM ET

Last Updated: Apr 12, 2011 10:18 AM ET

 

Shannon Brown (12) of the Los Angeles Lakers drives to the basket in a 99-83 road victory over the Spurs on March 6. (D. Clarke Evans/Getty Images)

When the Los Angeles Lakers picked up their ninth straight win on the first day of April, it was becoming apparent they — and not the reeling San Antonio Spurs — had emerged as Western Conference favorites.

Five consecutive losses later, that’s a title even Lakers head coach Phil Jackson can’t endorse.

The Lakers look to snap their longest losing streak in four years Tuesday night against the visiting Spurs, who will try for a fifth straight win that would put them a step closer to ensuring home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

San Antonio (61-19) has had the West’s best record all season, but from the all-star break through April 1, Los Angeles had played like the conference’s top team.

The Lakers won 17 of 18, including a 99-83 road rout of the Spurs, to pull to within 1½ games of San Antonio for the West’s No. 1 seed, but five straight defeats have erased that possibility. After Sunday’s 120-106 home loss to Oklahoma City, Los Angeles could now finish as low as fourth.

“The measure of success is what you’ve just recently accomplished, it’s not what’s been accomplished in the past or what we did post all-star break,” Jackson said. “So, for right now, we’re back into the middle of the pack playing basketball.”

The Lakers (55-25) haven’t lost this many in a row since a seven-game skid March 2-15, 2007. Perhaps more importantly, though, they’ve had a total of two three-game slides in their five championship seasons since Kobe Bryant’s been in Los Angeles. They’ve had four alone in 2010-11.

“I think we started to actually look ahead and look above as opposed to just kind of staying in the present,” Lakers guard Derek Fisher said. “We lost that step and it’s tough to get it back when you’re playing against professionals. We’ll go back to work and get ready to try and win a game on Tuesday night.”

Bryant admonished the Lakers for playing “horrible defense” after Sunday’s loss, but they’ve been excellent on that end against the Spurs despite losing two of three. They’ve held San Antonio to 39.9 per cent shooting, though they’ve shot just 41.7 per cent themselves.

Tony Parker has averaged 19.3 points in the series, but Los Angeles has done an outstanding job against Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan. Ginobili’s been held to 9.7 points per game while shooting 28.2 per cent and Duncan has totalled 12 points and missed 21 of 26 shots in the three games while dealing with Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.

While the Lakers are struggling, San Antonio has bounced back from six consecutive losses with four victories. It’s shot a combined 59.2 per cent in the last two, with Richard Jefferson’s 20 points leading six double-figure scorers in a 111-102 win over Utah on Saturday.

Two more victories would guarantee the Spurs home-court advantage throughout the post-season, though if they lose once and Chicago wins out, it’ll come down to a random draw.

Still, San Antonio seems as concerned with staying healthy as the league’s best record.

“We’ve played this well all season long. We’d love to finish at the top of the NBA,” Duncan. “We’re going to try to do the best of managing minutes, winning games and all that stuff … at the same time, so we’ll see what happens.”

The Spurs have been sharing the ball lately, averaging 24.3 assists in the four straight wins — 6.3 more than during the six-game skid.

When San Antonio has at least 22 assists, it’s 42-1.

Running low on time today, i’ll be back tomorrow hopefully with some more news.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AFP) – With the Los Angeles Lakers looming in their rearview mirror, the San Antonio Spurs halted their six-game skid in emphatic style Sunday with a 114-97 NBA victory over Phoenix.

George Hill scored 29 points in the rout, which ended a Spurs losing streak of almost a fortnight that saw the once-comfortable lead atop the Western Conference dwindle.

“Before the game, our three leaders spoke up and tried to say that everyone needs to hold themselves accountable,” said Hill, referring to the Spurs’ core of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.

“It’s not about one person on this team, it’s about the whole team.”

Later Sunday, the two-time defending champion Lakers fell 95-90 to Denver.

That snapped the Lakers’ nine-game winning streak and dropped Los Angeles 2 1/2 games behind the Spurs for the West lead.

The Spurs have five games remaining and the Lakers have six. The two will meet for the fourth and final time this season on April 12.

That game could decide who gets home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

“Nobody will turn down momentum going into the playoffs,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said.

The Suns, who swept the Spurs out of the playoffs last year to reach the Western Conference finals, were eliminated from playoff contention with Sunday’s defeat.

Suns guard Steve Nash didn’t make the trip to Texas because of flu.

Between his absence and San Antonio’s desperation for a victory, Suns coach Alvin Gentry knew his team would be up against it.

“We knew they were going to have a reaction, obviously they lost six straight games,” Gentry said. “They’re fighting like crazy to stay ahead of the Lakers, and the (Eastern Conference leading) Bulls.

“Obviously, it becomes really important to them, and they played that way.”

Matt Bonner added 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Spurs, who have the most wins of any NBA team but have lost their aura of dominance during the skid.

The Spurs led the Lakers by seven games after their previous victory on March 21.

Then Duncan missed four games with an ankle injury and the Spurs surrendered several games late to put their top seed in peril.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence, and hopefully we can finish in first place,” Parker said.

The Lakers need five more wins to reach 60 for the 12th time and the third under coach Phil Jackson.

Jackson has coached seven teams to 60 regular-season victories, and all won the title, including five Chicago Bulls teams.

Pau Gasol had 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Lakers, and reserve Lamar Odom added 17 points and seven rebounds.

Los Angeles got a brief injury scare when Gasol was fouled by Nene on a dunk and hit the floor hard in the third quarter.

Gasol flexed his leg, apparently testing his sore right knee, several times, played another minute then went to the locker room.

However, he returned shortly and re-entered the game.

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