The Lakers are riding a seven-game win streak and not only sit atop the league with an 11-2 record, they were the first team in the league to play 13 games in this early season. What looked like an easy schedule based on strength of opponent was countered by a rigorous slate that included three back-to-backs and multiple stretches of three games in four nights and five games in seven nights.
Los Angeles’ schedule wasn’t nearly as easy as people make it out to be, as referenced by the physical toll
it’s already taken on many of its most prominent players, including Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves, who each made it out of the first extended road trip of the season battered up.
Between the back-to-backs and surplus of games in a short span, the Lakers came out of this early slate with a lot more answers than questions. There were wins against quality teams like Detroit, Atlanta, Portland and Toronto and survival in potential trap games without one of Dončić or Reaves.
“The biggest takeaway is that this is a great group of guys who really enjoy playing together and really enjoy playing for each other,” Redick said of their first road trip. “But we got a lot of work to do and we got to keep getting better.”
The Lakers withstood everything the schedule makers threw their way. And for that, they’ll be rewarded with a less demanding runway of games that can serve as another ramp-up before some of their biggest tests of the season.
Before taking on Phoenix on Sunday, the Lakers are enjoying their first three-day break of the season, which gave the team time to travel back from Milwaukee and actually practice in El Segundo on Friday. The Suns are 5-6 and coming off a much-needed win against Charlotte. Their early season outlook hasn’t been the best, but they’re among the more talented under-.500 teams the Lakers have played so far.
Once the Lakers return from Arizona, they have four games at home over seven days against the Hornets (4-8), Utah twice (1-11) and Sacramento (1-10). When you include the Suns, Los Angeles’s opponents up until Thanksgiving have a combined record of 11-35.
This is a crucial stretch for the Lakers to string together some more easy early-season wins while ramping up for a gauntlet to end November, a three-game slate against San Antonio, Memphis and Houston. The Spurs are just half a game behind L.A. in the standings, while the Rockets sit 1.5 games behind and the Grizzlies just three games behind.
According to ESPN’s Relative Percent Index (RPI), a tool used to calculate a team’s strength of schedule and, in turn, a power ranking based on said schedule, the Lakers rank fifth in RPI. Houston is first, San Antonio is sixth and Memphis is 17th. The RPI also states that the Lakers have had the 15th-toughest schedule thus far.
Not only is that three-game stretch to end the month against three of the best teams the Lakers will have played so far, it’s also three games in four nights, on the road, starting the day after Thanksgiving, including a back-to-back in Memphis and Houston.
If they take care of business over these next five games as they have so far this season, the Lakers could enter that slate with a staggering 16-2 record for the first time since the 2019-20 championship season and for fifth time in franchise history, according to Stathead.
We’re about to see just how serious a team they are.
You can follow Connor on Twitter at @cmorenoNBA.
