“Obviously, we don’t want to go that route,” Davis said of the play-in. “But if it happens, it happens.”

 The Lakers’ final five games could include as many as four matchups against teams playing for something. Phoenix visits Los Angeles on Sunday, New York comes in Tuesday and lottery-bound Houston visits Wednesday. The Lakers end the regular season with a road back-to-back against Indiana and New Orleans — both play-in hopefuls — next weekend.

“When we get everyone healthy, especially headed to the playoffs, we know the type of team that we are, and I think the league knows the type of team that we are,” Davis said.

They win most of their games when LeBron James plays and lose most of their games when he doesn’t. With him sidelined for 23 of the Lakers’ last 25 games, they’ve fallen to No. 7 in the West — as low as they have been since late December. The most likely fate for them is playing a game (or two) in the new play-in round that awaits the teams finishing between seventh and 10th in each conference.

“We can’t worry about that,” Lakers coach Frank Vogel said Friday night after his team lost in Portland to fall to the seventh spot.

James indicated several days ago that he’s not exactly a proponent of the play-in games, saying the person at NBA headquarters who came up with the idea should be fired. But if the Lakers don’t win most of their remaining five games, the play-in round awaits.

“Wherever we land, we’re confident,” Vogel said, “Obviously, we want to finish in the top six. We still have five games to make up some ground if that’s possible. And we’ll continue to try to win as many of those games as we can.”