Before last Thursday, a collective unease could be heard among Los Angeles Lakers fans. The team was a mediocre 5-5 heading in their last 10, heading into a stretch of the schedule that was as daunting as they come. The Lakers have more than managed thus far.
After building some momentum by beating up on bad teams like the New Orleans Pelicans, Sacramento Kings, and Golden State Warriors, the Lakers went up against an all too familiar foe — the Denver Nuggets. The result was quite normal too. The Nuggets squeezed out a nail-biting win.
This was the first matchup of an eight-game stretch that featured six teams who were all above the Lakers in the standings before the run commenced. It was a disappointing way to start the season-defining challenge being throwing their way. Surprisingly enough, that is where those miserable feelings have stopped, for now.
The Lakers won their next three games. This included a dominant 110-97 victory over the New York Knicks on Sunday, and an equally impressive 120-106 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night. Suddenly, there is a clear pulse for this campaign in Los Angeles.
Lakers can make an emphatic statement by extending their winning ways
This Lakers team continues to be nothing short of absolutely fascinating. Every time it appears they try and tell you who they really are, the script gets flipped.
That is not to say the Lakers have recovered enough good will from these last few games to truly look the part of contenders, but there are certainly times throughout this season when things looked far less hopeful in Los Angeles. Improvements are quietly showing up across the board.
"That’s two really good wins in a row. … We’ve won six out of seven. And it feels like we’re trending in the right direction," Austin Reaves told reporters after the win over the Timberwolves. "We just got to continue to stick to the plan, and continue to get better every single day and compete at a high level.”
The next game on the schedule is the tanking Chicago Bulls. That one is not going to be any fun apart from answering the question of whether the Lakers can continue beating up on bad teams. What follows is where the intrigue is.
After the Bulls, the Lakers will get a rematch with the Nuggets before facing the Houston Rockets twice in a row. Those will be huge contests for both seeding and building confidence levels.
The Lakers managed to go 3-1 over the first half of this eight-game stretch. Seeing a similar mark over the back half of this run would certainly embolden some wilder conversations to start being had.