Great opportunity for Lakers to do to Timberwolves, Nuggets, and Rockets what they did to Knicks. Lakers facing game 2 in a 6-game rise from #6 to #3 in the West.

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

As the regular season winds down, JJ Redick and the Los Angeles Lakers find themselves in a peculiar situation. Record wise, L.A. is not a bad team at 38-25, but they have struggled against playoff-caliber competition.

On Thursday against the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles came out the gates flat and quickly fell behind 11-0. To their credit, they fought back, gave themselves a chance to win, but ultimately came up short.

Then on Friday, they took care of an undermanned Indiana Pacers team that has been derailed by injuries all season.

Overall on the year, the Lakers are 14-19 against teams with a winning record and 24-6 against losing teams.

If the Lakers hope to have any postseason success, they need to find ways to beat above .500 teams and plenty of those games await in the month of March.

Redick is maintaining belief in his team to find a way to beat the Western and Eastern Conference upper echelon, but knows this upcoming stretch will be a good test.

“The good news for us is that we have a lot of opportunities over the next 10 games or whatever it is to win some of those games,” Redick said. “I do think that the game last night was important because that was a game that we’ve broken throughout the year, the games like that. And they made a number of runs that went to double digits and we just kept playing and had a chance, one-possession game with a minute to go. Again, I’m confident we’re gonna find it. How we’re gonna find it, that’s where you gotta figure it out on a daily basis sometimes.”

Some noteworthy games this month include the New York Knicks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver, Houston Rockets twice, Detroit Pistons and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Frankly, it is make it or break it time for the Lakers as they are still fighting for playoff seeding.

Additionally, depending how seeding winds up, L.A. could certainly see one of these teams in the first round. The Lakers need to find a higher level of play and there is no better opportunity than right now.

Despite plenty of hiccups, Redick still has a pathway to get to 50 wins, which would be his second time reaching that benchmark in as many years with the Lakers. It is a tall task, but if that confidence translates to the court, Los Angeles could find themselves in a favorable position come playoff time.