{"id":640491,"date":"2026-03-05T07:17:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/640491\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T07:17:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T07:17:47","slug":"lakers-enter-season-defining-stretch-against-tougher-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/640491\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers enter season-defining stretch against tougher competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

All due respect to the short-handed Warriors<\/a>. And the league-worst Kings<\/a>. And the feisty-but-still-mediocre Pelicans.<\/p>\n

But the Lakers were supposed to win those games.<\/p>\n

And that isn\u2019t meant to take credit away from the Lakers \u2014 or the three-game winning streak they\u2019re on after Tuesday\u2019s home victory over the Pelicans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Los<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic, center, yells after scoring as New Orleans Pelicans guard Bryce McGowens, right, walks away during the second half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill) AP<\/p>\n

Matchups against injured teams or lesser competition count in the standings the same as any other game. And in a Western Conference in which spots Nos. 3-6 in the standings are separated by 1 \u00bd games with teams having 19-22 games remaining in the regular season, it\u2019s clear every win and loss is going to matter.<\/p>\n

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But what the Lakers are coming off of is a soft period in their schedule that showed their resolve, and important improvements, after a three-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

They took care of business.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s ahead of them is a season-defining period that\u2019ll help determine the quality of the team they are, starting with Thursday\u2019s game against the Nuggets in Denver.<\/p>\n

The matchup against the Nuggets will start a stretch in which the Lakers will play six of eight games against teams above them in the standings, including five against Western Conference opponents: the Nuggets (Thursday and March 14 at home), the Timberwolves (March 10 at home) and Rockets (March 16 and 18 in Houston).<\/p>\n

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A matchup against the Knicks, one of the Eastern Conference\u2019s top teams, awaits them Sunday. Games against the tanking Pacers (Friday) and Bulls (March 12) are also in the mix.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not something we\u2019re focused on, but we\u2019re definitely aware,\u201d Marcus Smart said of the upcoming stretch. \u201cMy experience, we got to focus on one game at a time. And that\u2019s the next game we play in Denver. We don\u2019t have the luxury to look ahead. We definitely got to take it one game at a time and handle business.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see why the upcoming stretch is so significant.<\/p>\n

The No. 3 Rockets (38-22) and No. 4 Timberwolves (39-23) are both 1 \u00bd games ahead of the No. 6 Lakers (37-24), who are half a game behind the No. 5 Nuggets (38-24).<\/p>\n

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The Lakers already secured the regular-season series over the Timberwolves with a pair of victories in October, but the series against the Nuggets (Lakers up 1-0) and Rockets (Lakers down 0-1) are still up for grabs. And last season, when the Lakers secured the No. 3 in the West after having the same record (50-32) as the Nuggets and Clippers, showed the importance of the tiebreakers.<\/p>\n

Despite the Lakers being in the mix in the West, the external pessimism surrounding status as true NBA title contenders stems from many places, including how they\u2019ve performed against the league\u2019s best teams.<\/p>\n

\"os<\/p>\n

os Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, center, finishes his dunks as New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson, left, guard Dejounte Murray, second from right, and center DeAndre Jordan, right, defend during the first half of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, March 3, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Mark J. Terrill) AP<\/p>\n

While the Lakers have a 23-6 record against teams below .500, they have a 14-18 record against teams .500 or better, which is the worst mark among the West\u2019s top six teams. Making matters worse is not only how they\u2019ve fared against the league\u2019s top teams but how uncompetitive those games have been so far.<\/p>\n

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They\u2019re 5-12 against the teams in the top 10 in point differential, according to Cleaning The Glass. And their net rating of minus-12.9 in those games, which is the league\u2019s fourth-worst mark, demonstrates how the Lakers have consistently been blown out when facing the league\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

But the Lakers have a chance to change the narrative about their season: that they\u2019re more than a team that can beat up on lesser competition but can\u2019t hang with the best.<\/p>\n

And the opportunity couldn\u2019t have come at a better time: They\u2019re the healthiest they\u2019ve been. Their morale is high.<\/p>\n

\u201cCould be a perfect time or not,\u201d Luka Doncic said. \u201cJust gotta approach those games with the same mentality. Obviously, every one of those teams has great players. They\u2019re winning games. So we need to go game by game first of all and then just try to win all those games.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Smart said Tuesday\u2019s win over the Pelicans, which they won despite not playing their best, could \u201cchange the trajectory for teams and players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smart added: \u201cThis win, the fashion that we won it, kicks our confidence up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s time for the Lakers to prove it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All due respect to the short-handed Warriors. And the league-worst Kings. And the feisty-but-still-mediocre Pelicans. But the Lakers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,7214,559,761,2878,301,292,304,300,185,251,368,326,6,66742,478,470,4073,4072,302,114,675,308,255,574,814],"class_list":["post-640491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-basketball","tag-bryce-mcgowens","tag-clippers","tag-deandre-jordan","tag-dejounte-murray","tag-denver","tag-houston","tag-knicks","tag-lakers","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles","tag-luka-doncic","tag-marcus-smart","tag-nba","tag-nba-basketball-game","tag-new-orleans","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-neworleans","tag-neworleanspelicans","tag-nuggets","tag-pacers","tag-pelicans","tag-timberwolves","tag-warriors","tag-western-conference","tag-zion-williamson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116175353960126781","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}