While it took the Lakers nearly 10 games to finally pull it off, their first loss in the NBA Cup on Tuesday couldn’t have been worse. The suns exploded – pun intended? – in the third quarter to win in a loss to the Lakers.

A stunning defeat not only damages morale, but also significantly diminishes their chances of defending the prestigious NBA Cup. The loss leaves the Lakers tied with the Spurs and Suns with a record of 2-1.

Additionally, the Lakers finish their group play on Friday against an OKC team that is the best in the Western Conference. They are also on the outside looking in, are 1-1 in group play and need wins in each of their last two games to advance to the quarter-finals.

Essentially, it’s a must-win for both teams. The Lakers will be at home, where they have performed far better this season. But it will be a daunting task to get what would surely be their best win of the season.

But even if everything turns out to be their undoing, the Lakers’ fate is beyond their control. The Spurs and Suns play their final group game, so the three-way tie becomes just a two-way tie.

The simplest way for this to play out is for the Lakers to win, the Spurs to win, and the Lakers to face San Antonio and get out of the group. But if the Lakers win and the Suns win, the Lakers lose this head-to-head battle.

This means they remain in the race for the one wildcard spot. And so the problem of blowout arises. This is where the point differential comes into play, and the Lakers’ point differential is pretty bad now. Their only real hope in this regard is a comfortable win against the Thunder. And that is very unrealistic.

In Group A, Houston blows everyone away and is the only team with a positive points difference. The second-place Clippers are just under -5, but also still have two games left. Portland is also 1-1 but trails by -14 points, but the two teams are still playing each other, so one team is eliminated from the competition.

If the Mavericks beat the Pelicans by 41 points in Group C, that means that despite a loss, if they beat Memphis on Tuesday, at worst they have the Wild Card locked up. Golden State is undefeated but has to travel to Denver.

Basically, there is simply no realistic scenario in which the Lakers come into the game with a negative point difference of 3-1 and make it out of the group as a wild card. To be eliminated from contention, both the Clippers and Blazers would have to lose. Additionally, Denver would have to beat Golden State by about 20 points and the Thunder by about 10 points.

Got it? Good. Do you believe it? You shouldn’t.

The easiest and most realistic way to sum it all up is for the Lakers to beat OKC on Friday and then sit back and hope the Spurs win on the road against Phoenix.

That being said, there is a very, very slim chance that the Lakers get a chance to make back-to-back NBA Cup appearances.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.