LOS ANGELES — It’s hard to ever get a fanbase to all agree on something, but one thing about the Lakers everyone seems to acknowledge is their struggle to beat good teams.
They are 15-19 against teams with more wins than losses and entering Sunday’s matinee against the Knicks, they had just four victories in 16 attempts against opponents that had a winning percentage above .600.
The Lakers finally flipped the script on Sunday, though, picking up not just a win over a “good” team, but a Knicks side
that has the second-best record in the Eastern Conference and defeated them just last month, making the victory all the sweeter.
It wasn’t just the fact that they beat a good team that made this the best result of the year, it was how they did it.
Even with LeBron James out, the Lakers established dominance from the jump. This was a vintage Reaves performance as he wasted no time getting going offensively, scoring the team’s first five points.
He was attacking the paint with positive results — he ended the game going 8-10 from the foul line — and his 3-point shot was back as he knocked down half of his attempts.
“We just kept telling him, ‘touch the paint, touch the paint, touch the paint,’” Lakers head coach JJ Redick said postgame. “He was really strong today. We always talk about physicality on defense, but you need physicality on offense and I thought he was very physical offensively and that allowed him to squirt the basket, allowed him to draw fouls. They’ve got a lot of size and they’re a big team and he did a great job.”
Early in this season, Reaves having this kind of game wouldn’t have been newsworthy. But he’s failed to score more than 20 points each of the past eight games, so this was both welcome and needed.
Even with Reaves playing well, it takes a total team effort to defeat the Knicks.
LA was offensively aggressive, taking 44 3-point attempts, well above their season average of 33.5. Rui Hachimura re-entered the starting lineup, replacing LeBron, and scored on his first four shot attempts, ending the game with 13 points. Jaxson Hayes led the bench with 12 points and once again closed out the game.
However, the team’s most impressive feat was also its most shocking. The Lakers won this game largely thanks to their defense.
They held the Knicks to just 97 points, this was only the fourth time this season that LA held a team to under 100.
Not only did New York fail to crack the century mark, but the Lakers ended many of their offensive possessions with turnovers, forcing 19 and scoring 21 points off them. Add in five blocks and holding Mikal Bridges scoreless and it becomes clear why LA earned its second straight win and fifth victory in six games.
“You go down the stretch, I think we had three or four possessions where we end up with either a deflection or steal and all of that was on multiple efforts,” Redick said. “We were able to sustain that for all four quarters.”
Not only did LA win the game easily, but they remained in control during the second half.
With 4:35 left in the third quarter, the Knicks were down by just nine points. The Lakers responded, shutting down the New York, who failed to make a shot for over four minutes. By the time they did, Los Angeles was up by 19.
In the fourth, the Knicks tried to go on a run and got within 13 points thanks to a Jalen Brunson three with 8:23 left in the game. Redick called a timeout and LA’s guards in Dončić, Reaves, and Luke Kennard responded by knocking down shots, never allowing New York to even get within single digits.
The purple and gold did everything to win this game. Marcus Smart was diving on the floor. Luka was sacrificing his body to draw charges. Jarred Vanderbilt was bumping into courtside fans.
This late into the season, every win is needed. The Lakers earning this kind of victory during a nationally televised game against an elite team makes it clear that while LA’s 2025-26 story has completed multiple chapters, how the tale ends has yet to be told.
Inside the Lakers locker room, the win was business as usual. The goal is to never get too high or too low. They passed this test, but plenty more are on the way, with Minnesota next and games against the Nuggets, Rockets and Thunder looming.
“My job is not to overreact,” Redick said. “We’re 15-9 in our last 24 [games]. We’re a top-10 offense and a top-15 defense. That’s what we wanted to be coming into this season with this group, and that’s where our group is right now.”
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
