Great teams should be able to take care of business when being giftwrapped an easy outing. Thus far in the 2026-27 season, the Los Angeles Lakers have proven they can take advantage of the weak opponents on their slate. Wednesday night was just the latest example of that.
Despite being on the road, a date against the bottom-feeding Milwaukee Bucks should have always projected itself as a game the Lakers could sleepwalk through and win. Los Angeles did indeed secure a comfortable 123-112 victory over Milwaukee. Business was taken care of.
The only thing that soured the victory was the bumps and bruises along the way. Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, and Collin Sexton all dealt with an ailment before the night was over. Reaves appears to be the most serious of the bunch there.
Putting that to the side for a second, the Lakers have eaten up Ws when thrown a bone from facing weaker competition. Some may want to use that to take away from their early success. In reality, it should be the complete opposite.
Lakers keep beating bad teams like a contender would
If you are gunning for a top seed in either conference, there are few things that help accomplish that goal better than consistently knocking off the beatable teams on your schedule. The Lakers have done that over and over.
When teams like the Los Angeles Clippers, Utah Jazz, and Sacramento Kings have been on their schedule, the Lakers have disposed of them. Rest assured, they have beaten good competition in unfavorable circumstances too. Los Angeles is not just exclusively feasting on the bad squads.
The Lakers will have a great chance in front of them to keep proving they will stack up the winnable games as just that. Their next five contests come against four teams (they place the Jazz twice) who are currently under .500. Line them up and beat them down should be the motto.
Considering the Western Conference presently has 10 teams with a winning percentage of at least .600, the Lakers will want to clean up the wins against these lesser squads out there. Any slippage they suffer can quickly come back to haunt them. The Denver Nuggets, who sit in 10th at 6-4, are only 3.5 games back of Los Angeles.
Contenders try and never give bad teams a feeling of opportunity. The Lakers will want to make sure that remains true of themselves moving forward.
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