March 8, 2026, 8:06 p.m. PT

One of the knocks on the Los Angeles Lakers this season is that they have a lack of wins against quality competition. They have done fairly well against bad and mediocre teams, but coming into Sunday, they were just 4-12 against teams that currently have at least a .600 winning percentage.

They improved that record a bit by downing the New York Knicks, one of the Eastern Conference’s legitimate championship contenders, by a final score of 110-97. The Lakers won this game by doing something they haven’t done much of this season — playing consistently aggressive and effective defense. New York, which came in third in offensive efficiency, shot 42.7% overall and 23.5% from 3-point range while committing 19 turnovers.

Sunday’s contest was the start of a tough stretch for the Lakers, which will include contests against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets and Detroit Pistons over the next 15 days. Many feel this stretch will essentially make or break the team as far as whether it will have any chance of an extended playoff run.

Coach JJ Redick said on Friday that he sees this group of games as an opportunity.

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“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.”

Sunday’s victory moved L.A. into fifth place in the Western Conference with a 39-25 record. They trail the fourth-place Rockets by half a game and the third-place Timberwolves by one game. If they do well enough during the rest of March, they could have a real shot at vaulting into third place in the West, just as they did to end last season.