Los Angeles Lakers: 3 ways to improve after the NBA trade deadline

Be the best by beating the best

It’s exactly the opposite of what the narrative was supposed to be when LeBron finally left the Eastern Conference for the West, but the Lakers have been accused of fattening up their record on a weak schedule.

While the numbers say one thing — L.A. has the NBA’s sixth-strongest schedule at the moment, according to RPI rankings — perception tells us another.

The Lakers have gone 0-2 against the Clippers, 0-2 against the East-leading Milwaukee Bucks and the defending champion Toronto Raptors, 2-2 against the Rockets and Nuggets, and 0-2 against the 76ers and Boston Celtics.

It makes sense that a good team will take L’s against other good teams, but given that aforementioned sense of urgency around the Lakers, it’s alarming when they can’t pick up a W against the league’s perceived top title contenders.

Excuses can be made for most of those big-stage losses. Sometimes the Lakers were missing a key player or two due to injury. Sometimes it was the last game of a road trip, or the second night of a back-to-back.

And most of the time, there were stretches of play during those losses that L.A. looked great and you could see exactly how they would beat that opponent in a playoff series.

For their peace of mind, though, it would be great if the Los Angeles Lakers could pick up some big wins in the coming weeks after the All-Star break.

Don’t be surprised at all if they lose this Wednesday in the notoriously high elevation of Denver, in their final game before the break. That one has “going through the motions” written all over it. After that, however, L.A. has home dates with the Celtics (Feb. 23), 76ers (March 3) and Bucks (March 6), then play the Clippers (March 8), Rockets (March 12) and Nuggets (March 15). All of those games will be at the Staples Center.

How the Los Angeles Lakers play during that stretch will either induce panic mode among Laker Nation, or boost the collective confidence to championship levels.