Los Angeles Lakers: 3 must-win games for the rest of the regular season

With less than two months to go until the end of the regular season, the Los Angeles Lakers still have some work to do before they’re ready to contend for an NBA championship. Part of that work is proving they can beat the other elite teams in the league.

With the All-Star break now behind us, the Dog Days of the NBA season for the Los Angeles Lakers are almost done with. Soon we will be moving our clocks an hour forward as the NBA Playoffs loom on the horizon and the Lakers will look towards rounding into fighting shape.

March and April are when playoff and championship contenders traditionally want to start peaking and playing their best ball. You don’t want to wait for the start of the playoffs to start establishing championship habits – you want to engrain them as early as possible.

After their 114-112 win over the hated Boston Celtics on Feb. 23, the Lakers are on a five-game winning streak and have won seven of their last eight games. Even better, a few of their role players, most notably Avery Bradley and Rajon Rondo, have stepped up their games as of late.

With the addition of Markieff Morris, the Purple and Gold will now have a new weapon in their arsenal who could help them at both ends of the floor and shore up a couple of their weaknesses.

But ultimately the proof is in the pudding, and there are three games remaining on the schedule that the Lakers really need to win. It’s not so much about holding on to first place in the Western Conference, or even about building more momentum.

More than anything else, it’s really about proving to themselves and others that they can beat their fiercest and toughest competitors when it really matters.