The Los Angeles Lakers have been playing some excellent basketball as of late, recently continuing their winning ways with a home win over the Brooklyn Nets. The Lakers recently wrapped up a strong East Coast road trip in which their only loss came in narrow fashion to the Detroit Pistons.
Recently, Lakers head coach JJ Redick spoke on the team's consistency as they push to lock up the third seed in the Western Conference, with the playoffs quickly approaching.
“No, I haven't at all,” said Redick, when asked if he had noticed any slippage in focus as the season has worn on, per Benjamin Royer of the O.C. Register on X, formerly Twitter. “That's the thing I've talked about all year, is you need great effort and you need great execution. I think the effort part has been there very consistently for weeks now.”
Half the battle for success in the NBA postseason is figuring out how to play your best basketball heading into the playoffs, something that the Indiana Pacers did last year, riding that momentum to the NBA Finals as a result.
Over the course of the last month, the Lakers have looked like a legit contender out West, suddenly playing much-improved defense, which was long viewed as the biggest area of concern on the roster, and also knocking down the perimeter jumper with elite accuracy. Through it all, LeBron James has slid into more of a third option role behind Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves in the Lakers' offense, which might have allowed him to conserve more energy for the team's upcoming playoff push.
The Lakers will next take the floor on Monday night at home for a game vs the Washington Wizards.
