The Los Angeles Lakers have amassed back-to-back major victories over the Memphis Grizzlies and the Houston Rockets over their last two games. LeBron James and company put themselves in great position to avoid the Play-In Tournament and fight for seeding at the top of the Western Conference with wins over two other top conference opponents.
The even more impressive part is that they won both games in completely different ways. The win over the Grizzlies was an offensive battle that required 134 points from L.A. with all three of LeBron, Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves scoring 25 or more. Against a gritty Rockets team on Monday, the Lakers defense held tough, limiting them to 98 points. Doncic led the way with 20 points.
The Rockets had been playing exceptional basketball over the last month, and that was the focus for James heading into and after the victory.
“I thought defensively we were very locked in with our gameplan and what we wanted to do,” LeBron said. “They’ve won 13 out of 14. They’ve been red hot and the hottest team in the NBA. We understood that we had to key in on our keys defensively in order to win the game.”
The Lakers have seven games remaining in the regular season, and in that time have to still develop a bit of cohesion between James, Doncic and Reaves. The Lakers 40-year-old superstar spoke about what the team needs to do the rest of the way to make that happen.
“Urgency and playing with urgency,” James said. “We know that. We got a lot of playoff experience in this locker room, but we all know that one play here and one play there can be the difference between winning a playoff series and not. We have to have more urgency, playing with physicality and holding each other accountable. That’s most important.”
While staying urgent and staying focused, LeBron also urged the Lakers away from the extremes of emotions during what will be a heightened time.
“Stay even-keel. Don’t get too high, don’t get too low, no matter what’s going on throughout the course of the ballgame and win, lose, or draw. If you go out and you have your game plan intact, you try to execute that the 48 minutes in, give yourself a good chance to win every night.”
The Lakers have seven games to get ready to for an important playoffs that could see them having a real shot to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals. How they approach those final seven games could be the difference between a long postseason and a short one.
LeBron James looking at Western Conference standings
The Lakers are currently the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference, but still have plenty of room for movement in the final seven games. LeBron James admitted that he is looking at that the same way fans are.
“Um, well, I mean, because it’s so close here this year in particular, so close and people are jumping each other, falling behind, whatever the case may be. It’s not like I don’t do it every day, but it’s talked about pretty much all the time,” James said. “You kind of see where you’re at. For us, obviously, our mission is to lock you in a playoff spot and not have to plan a plan. So, we understand what’s at stake.”
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