The Los Angeles Lakers are at the start of a huge winning streak
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Lakers are 3-2 this season and are about to make their record much better.
The Los Angeles Lakers have not had the most stellar start out of the gate in the 2020-21 season, but that was expected. The Lakers are fresh off of the shortest offseason in American sports history and the team’s biggest goal is to get to the playoffs healthy.
The Lakers opened their season with a loss against the Los Angeles Clippers and were bested by the Portland Trail Blazers on the second leg of a back-to-back last week. As far as wins, the Lakers have bested the Dallas Mavericks, Minnesota Timberwolves and San Antonio Spurs.
Now that the calendar has turned over to 2021, the Lakers are going to start getting hot and put together their first big winning streak of the season. We are not even 10% into the season yet and this winning streak will help separate the Lakers from the rest of the pack in the Western Conference.
The upcoming schedule for the Lakers is really favorable and they are no stranger to rattling off a big winning streak early in the year. Last season, the Lakers started 7-1, lost their second game of the year and then rattled off 10 wins in a row before losing to the Toronto Raptors.
They are going to do the same, and hopefully, will be at least 13-2 when it is all said and done.
The upcoming Los Angeles Lakers schedule:
The Lakers take on the San Antonio Spurs on New Year’s Day in a game that should be an easy win for LA. We have already seen this matchup once and the Lakers had a relatively easy time with San Antonio, coasting to a 121-107 win.
The Spurs just do not have the firepower to keep up with the Lakers. Anthony Davis had another relatively quiet game and Dejounte Murray dropped 29, which was a career-high. They still lost by 14.
The Lakers then travel to Memphis to take on the Grizzlies in back-to-back games. Initially, this projected to be two really fun matchups, however, without Ja Morant, I can’t imagine the Grizzlies being able to beat the defending NBA Champions, even with two chances.
After Memphis, the Lakers travel back to LA for a back-to-back with the San Antonio Spurs and Chicago Bulls. This could be dicey, but as we mentioned, the Spurs just do not have the firepower to keep up and the Bulls are not that great of a basketball team, even with Billy Donovan at the helm.
Then the Lakers travel to Houston to take on the Rockets in back-to-back games. We have no idea if James Harden will still be on the team by then, but even if he is, I like the Lakers in both games. They will be close, but this really does feel like an uninterested Rockets team (perhaps because their star is uninterested) that can beat bad teams, not great teams.
To wrap up a potential 10-game winning streak the Lakers are on the road against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Personally, I think the Thunder will be better than expected this season (I picked them over their win total) but they still aren’t a great basketball team.
That would put the Los Angeles Lakers at 13-2 before entering an interesting slate of games that are all toss-ups, in my opinion. They host the New Orleans Pelicans on January 15 in what should be a really fun game before taking on both the Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks.
If the Lakers somehow beat all three teams and move the winning streak to 13 then it could realistically reach 15 as they take on the Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers before taking on the Philadelphia 76ers on the road.
Of course, there is always the possibility of the Los Angeles Lakers dropping a stinker and ruining this entire narrative. But as it stands right now, I like their chances to go on a significant run.