NBA Star Power Index: Can LeBron James lead Lakers out of play-in tournament on back-to-back quest?

Also, Trae Young's balling and the Bradley Beal-Kent Bazemore beef was one for the ages

Welcome back to the NBA Star Power Index -- a weekly gauge of the players who are most controlling the buzz around the league. Reminder: Inclusion on this list isn't necessarily a good thing. It simply means that you're capturing the NBA world's attention. Also, this is not a ranking. The players listed are in no particular order as it pertains to the buzz they're generating. This column will run every week through the end of the regular season.  The beef began in earnest when, mere hours before tipoff of the Wizards' game against the Atlanta Hawks, Kamiah Adams-Beal started tweeting about Bazemore. It began with her sharing Bazemore's career statistics, which are unimpressive compared to Beal. Things seemingly cooled off when she argued that he didn't need to put others down to make his point. Then they got more heated when she tweeted "I'm mad we even giving relevancy to someone most people didn't even know was still in the league." "You don't know me or s*** about me bruh!!!" Beal's first reply read. "You don't know why I go out there and play and it damn sure ain't for another man's approval!!! You a straight LAME!!! But it don't surprise me coming from you, thats what's yo type do!!" And, to complete the family tag team, Adams-Beal replied "I wouldn't hold my breath for a response. But hey, maybe after a long night of 8 points, 1 assist, 1 rebound, 6 turnovers and 6 fouls he will have some time." While all of this was going on, Bazemore's Warriors were on the floor playing against the Utah Jazz. He has therefore been unable to respond to it at the time, but commented after the game.  LeBron James was hoping to return Tuesday vs. the New York Knicks, then Wednesday vs. the Houston Rockets, and now the hope is for Saturday vs. the Indiana Pacers. The Los Angeles Lakers managed to squeak out wins against New York and Houston by a combined four points to keep their slim hopes of crawling out of the play-in tournament alive.  This escalated the situation enough for Beal to get involved. When he asked if he should respond to Bazemore, his wife chimed in with this GIF from Mortal Kombat.  He then turned things around on Curry, who has spoken openly about his pursuit of the scoring title. "It's funny you say that because ya mans admittedly checked my numbers before the game, but IM CHASING!!! Shut yo a** up!"  "I guess you can't joke anymore," Bazemore said. "Whatever. I feel like I'm a pretty lighthearted guy. Hey man -- my loyalty is to SC30. It kind of got out of hand. I don't get involved with that crap." But it doesn't look good. The No. 7 Lakers trail the No. 6 Dallas Mavericks and No. 5 Portland Trail Blazers by one game, but both those teams own the tiebreaker over L.A., which makes the gap an effective two games with two to play. If Portland, Dallas and L.A. finish in a three-way tie, the Lakers would still end up No. 7 on account of Dallas being a division winner and the Blazers having a better head-to-head record (4-2) vs. L.A. and Dallas than the Lakers do (2-4) against Portland and Dallas.