Los Angeles Lakers look to come out strong against beatable opponents
With the All-Star break in the rear view mirror, the Los Angeles Lakers will look to get some wins in the early part of the second half of the schedule.
The Los Angeles Lakers are finally about to start the rest of their season after the All-Star break. The team plays on Friday, which will mark a full eight days since the Lakers last played. They will hope to play better post-All-Star break than they did pre-All-Star break.
They took a three-game losing streak into the break in games against the Mavericks, the Pelicans, and the Timberwolves. Their schedule starts out in their favor after the All-Star break, with three very winnable games.
The Lakers will begin their final 25 games of the season at home against the Mavericks on Friday, the 23rd. They follow that up with the second part of a back-to-back, visiting the Sacramento Kings on the 24th and then going to Atlanta to play the Hawks on the 26th. These teams combined have a record of 54-120, as they are three of the worst teams in the NBA.
The Lakers should turn their three-game losing streak into a three-game winning streak, but you never know. The Lakers only two weeks ago lost 130-123 to the Mavericks in Dallas and in November they lost to the Kings 113-102.
They beat Atlanta 132-113 in the only time they’ve played, and actually ended up beating the Kings the second time, 99-86. The point is, the Lakers can’t take these teams for granted. The Lakers themselves are 23-34 and still aren’t close to being a “good” team in the NBA. They should take these three games seriously, as it gets way worse later.
Regroup and Recharge
The Lakers looked exhausted going into the break, and hopefully they got a chance to rest their bodies and minds going into the last quarter of the season. Even if they are well rested, there’s other challenges that the Lakers can only face in games. One of those challenges is how Isaiah Thomas and Lonzo Ball will work together on the court.
Isaiah and Lonzo still haven’t played together as Lonzo has still been resting his strained MCL during the three games Isaiah was able to play in following the trade. Reports say Lonzo is questionable in the first game back against the Mavericks, which means there’s a chance that we will see them together tomorrow.
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They will be able to get some practice time working together, but they might not become comfortable together until they’re in a game. With the three games against the Mavericks, Kings, and Hawks, the two will be able to experiment more together with different lineups and plays. Hopefully, Lonzo will be ready.
In addition to acclimating Isaiah to the team, the Lakers will have to continue to learn how to play without Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. They looked confused on defense while switching in their first three games without Nance and Clarkson. This is most likely due to missing two key role players that were with the team the entire season.
Some fans will try and blame Isaiah’s defense as the reason the Lakers played so terribly on the defensive end. Isaiah may be partly at fault, but it was a lack of team effort that contributed to the bad play on defense. Hopefully with more practice and more games they will figure out their rotations with Isaiah and without Nance and Clarkson. These three games will be great for the young Lakers for getting more comfortable with their current squad.
After the first three games of the post-All-Star break schedule, things get tremendously harder. The month of March starts off with 10 games where the Lakers will face teams with winning records in 9 of them. With games against teams like the Trail Blazers, the Cavs, and the Warriors, the Lakers are going to lose more often than not in the next few weeks.
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The Lakers need to get off to a good start following the break and win those first three games. If they come out slow and lose those games, things will really derail when the good teams start coming up on the schedule.
Either way, it’s good to almost have the Lakers back again. Here’s to a strong end to the season!