The final resting place of the Lakers’ 2021-22 season was the Sonoran Desert. It marked another disappointing night in a season filled with them.

The Lakers were officially eliminated from playoff contention after a 121-110 loss Tuesday to the Phoenix Suns. 

They still have three games left, but those won’t matter thanks to 79 others that made up one of the most unfulfilling Lakers campaigns in recent memory.

Not only did the Lakers fail to make the playoffs, they couldn’t qualify for the play-in tournament that included seventh through 10th place in the Western Conference.

The Lakers (31-48) are firmly entrenched in 11th place in the West with too little time to move any higher. They were pushed to the brink of elimination earlier Tuesday after San Antonio upset Denver, 116-97. A lost season became official a couple of hours later.

“Extremely disappointed,” Lakers Coach Frank Vogel said. “Disappointed for our fan base, disappointed for the Buss family… We fell short.”

The Spurs (34-45) now hold an insurmountable three-game lead over the Lakers and own the tiebreaker because of a better conference record.

LeBron James sat out again because of a sprained ankle, but it probably didn’t matter. Phoenix is favored to win its first NBA championship and earned a franchise-record 63rd victory of the season.

Anthony Davis played through an injury of his own (sore foot) but his season might be over as well because the final few days don’t matter. He finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds in only his 40th game of an injury-marred campaign.

The Lakers were pre-season favorites to win the West but were undone by three nagging issues — injuries to Davis and James; a pliant defense that surrendered way too many points; and poor outside shooting, especially from three-point range.

James missed more than one-fourth of the season and Davis about half. The Lakers used 39 different starting lineups, too much instability for just about any franchise.

The Lakers haven’t won two games in a row in three months. They haven’t held a team under 100 points in two months. They are 21st in the league in three-point accuracy.

Russell Westbrook was acquired last summer to fill in gaps when James or Davis was sidelined, but the fit was inconsistent. In a case of too little-too late, he’s played better the last two weeks, including 28 points against Phoenix.

It wasn’t enough to prevent the Lakers from a massive 4-17 swoon since last month’s All-Star break.

“It’s obviously disappointing on many levels, but ain’t much you can do about it at this point,” Westbrook said. “I just hope we have the chance to be able to do something in the future.”

Will the Lakers try to run it back next season with the same nucleus? An important question for sure. The temptation is there because Westbrook, James and Davis played only 21 games together.

“Disappointed we haven’t had a chance to have a full team. Not sure how good we could have been,” said Davis, who missed two substantial stretches of time because of knee and foot injuries. “Sucks for me. Sucks for our team, our organization.”

He later added, “I truly think we could have done something special,” if healthy.

Westbrook is under contract for $47 million next season. It’s a player option, but he will almost surely exercise it. James has one more season at $44.5 million. Davis has three more years on his deal. 

Talen Horton-Tucker has two more years on his contract after an uneven 2021-22 campaign. Kendrick Nunn will almost surely exercise a $6.3 million player option to return after missing the entire season because of a bone bruise on his knee.

Beyond that, the Lakers will have to fill in a litany of open roster spots in free agency without much spending power because they are over the salary cap. They do not have a first-round pick because of the Davis trade with New Orleans three years ago. They also traded away their second-round pick.

“This is a season where we just didn’t get it done,” said Carmelo Anthony, one of many veterans on one-year contracts with the Lakers. “We had the tools. Some things was out of our control. Some things we could control… We just didn’t get it done.”