The Los Angeles Lakers may not be true championship contenders, but in recent days, they have at least played like contenders. They defeated the New York Knicks, who are definite contenders, on Sunday, March 8, and two days later, they beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, who have gotten to the Western Conference finals in each of the last two years.
On Saturday, the Lakers scored another big win by getting past the Denver Nuggets 127-125 in overtime. They have a 42-25 record, which puts them in third place in the Western Conference, and they have won five games in a row and eight of their last nine contests.
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Things may be truly changing for the Lakers, who won only half of their combined games in December, January and February. In the meantime, LeBron James cited the “championship DNA” of the Nuggets, who won the NBA title in 2023, and said that L.A. is trying to develop some of its own.
“We just want to continue to keep building good habits, continue playing the game the right way. Denver’s a championship ball club, they’re core with AG (Aaron Gordon) and Jamal [Murray] and [Nikola] Jokić and Christian [Braun], they won a championship. So they have that championship DNA. So that’s [what] we trying, that’s what we’re striving for.”
This core group of Lakers players hasn’t been together as long as the Nuggets’ core has. But something may be truly percolating after L.A.’s struggles this season, and coach JJ Redick said after Saturday’s game that he feels the team is “coalescing right now in a really nice way,” per ESPN.
It will now head off on a challenging six-game road trip starting on Monday when it faces the Houston Rockets, who are in fourth place in the West.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: LeBron James: Lakers are striving to build ‘championship DNA’