Believe it or not, the Los Angeles Lakers only have 21 games remaining in the 2025-26 NBA season. With so few matchups left in the regular season, this upcoming eight-game stretch will be absolutely pivotal to where the Lakers end up by year's end.
Khobi Price pointed out on Twitter/X that six of the next eight games in this campaign will come against teams above them in the standings. Five of those contests will be against teams in the Western Conference. Any battle to claim a top seed and avoid the Play-In Tournament starts here.
"It's not something we're focused on, but we're definitely aware," Marcus Smart told Price of the upcoming stretch. "For us, in my experience, we got to focus on one game at a time. ... We don't have the luxury to look ahead."
Riding a three-game winning streak into an important matchup against the Denver Nuggets is a great place to start that one game at a time approach for Smart and the team. While they may not want to look too far ahead, they will want to have razor-sharp focus on each of those outings.
Lakers can either climb or freefall amid crucial stretch of schedule
Thursday's matchup against the Nuggets is going to be the first of two meetings against Denver over this upcoming eight-game stretch. They will face the same team that has haunted their postseason nightmares again on Mar. 14.
Speaking of playoff disasters, the Lakers will also play the team who sent them packing last year. The Minnesota Timberwolves will face Los Angeles on Mar. 10 as the fourth game in this stretch. JJ Redick's team has actually handled that matchup well in 2025-26, going 2-0 thus far.
The Lakers will also see the Houston Rockets twice over that span. Houston has felt like a team who have been just as erratic as Los Angeles this season. Even so, the Rockets absolutely hammered the Lakers when they last met on Christmas Day.
Out of conference, the Lakers will also face the New York Knicks on Mar. 8. The only real letup in this stretch comes against the Indiana Pacers and Chicago Bulls. Apart from that, Los Angeles will face great teams over and over.
The Lakers possess one of the tougher remaining strengths of schedule in the NBA. A handful of those matchups listed are exactly the reason why that is the case. With the Western Conference packed together closely as usual, Los Angeles will need their foot firmly on the pedal.