Lakers' Ongoing Collapse Will Only Benefit the San Antonio Spurs

The Los Angeles Lakers suffered yet another embarrassing loss on Sunday night, and the San Antonio Spurs only stand to benefit from their downfall.

The 123-95 defeat was the fifth in the last six games for the Lake Show and was marked by a parade of boos from the home crowd through the entire second half. Even worse, the beatdown was on national TV -- one of their 30 games scheduled for ABC, ESPN, and TNT for the season.

Beyond just being pretty funny to watch in general, there are more more perks to the Lakers continuing to collapse that directly affect the Spurs. For one, San Antonio owns their 2nd round pick this season, meaning the further down the Lakers fall in the standings, the better it is.

The More the Lakers lose, the better

The way the second round of the NBA Draft works is simple: the team with the worst record gets the 31st pick, and the order goes upward in the standings from there. Theoretically, the Spurs could end up with the 31st pick if the Lakers completely melt down. Realistically, they're likely to get a pick in the low-40s or mid-30s at best.

Beyond getting a better pick in the second round, the Spurs very well could pass up the Lakers in the standings if they keep up their consistent losing. San Antonio is now just 3.5 games behind Los Angeles and can make up a full game on them by beating them on March 7th.

It seems unfathomable, but the Lakers could be in danger of missing the play-in tournament altogether if they don't figure things out soon. They have the second-toughest strength of schedule remaining in the NBA, including two matchups each against Phoenix and Golden State still to go. They have 2.5 games of cushion before falling to the 11th seed, but the current 11th seeded Portland Trail Blazers have the easiest schedule left in the league.

If you're on team tank and are only worried about getting the highest pick available, it might not be such good news that a play-in appearance getting is more likely. But remember, the Spurs have three 1st round picks to work with regardless of what happens. Not landing a top pick doesn't necessarily mean they can't make moves to get there.

For now, just enjoy what's going on in Hollywood right now -- it can only help the Silver and Black.