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  1. FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

    #6
    Los Angeles Lakers

    Last Week:10↑
    Record: 42-25

    OffRtg: 116.9 (8)
    DefRtg: 115.9 (20)
    NetRtg: +1.1 (15)
    Pace: 99.4 (20)

    The Lakers are playing their best basketball of the season and have won eight of their last nine games. They are alone in third place in the Western Conference.

    Three takeaways:

    Nine days ago, the Lakers had lost 12 of their last 13 games against the top 10 teams in the league. But they’ve now won three straight, holding the Knicks, Wolves and Nuggets (offenses that rank third, 12th and first, respectively) to just 107.5 points per 100 possessions over those three games. That has them, finally, out of the bottom 10 on defense for the season.

    Luka Dončić leads the league in usage rate (36.4%), and it’s been higher (38.5%) as he’s averaged 38.2 points, 9.8 rebounds and 8.4 assists over the Lakers’ five-game winning streak. He’s shot 41.4% from 3-point range over his last 27 games, up from just 31.6% through his first 28, though he went inside the arc for the overtime game-winner against the Nuggets on Saturday. That was just his first field goal attempt to tie or take the lead in the final minute of the fourth quarter or overtime this season.

    The context with the Lakers’ improvement over the last few weeks is that they’ve played 15 of their last 18 games at home, and they’ll now embark on a six-game road trip. They don’t have nearly as big a home-road differential as they did last season (the biggest in the league), but they are just 7-10 on the road since mid-December.

    Coming up: The trip begins with two huge games in Houston, with the Lakers having been clobbered by the Rockets in the first meeting (on Christmas). Then it’s on to Miami, where LeBron James is just 6-17 (2-4 with the Lakers) as a visitor.

    Week 22: @ HOU, @ HOU, @ MIA, @ ORL

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