The Lakers beating the red-hot Knicks, 110-97, on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena is impressive in itself.
The Lakers entered Sunday with a 4-12 record against teams with winning percentages of .600 or better, calming concerns for at least one day about how they have fared against some of the NBA’s better teams.
And against a Knicks team that had won 16 of its previous 21 games — including beating the Nuggets by 39 points — and had the league’s fourth-best offense during that stretch, holding the Knicks to 97 points was another impressive part of Sunday.
But the way they won, thanks to pressing play and defense, made Sunday even more impressive and the Lakers’ best win of the season so far.
“There was one key, and it was multiple efforts,” coach JJ Redick said. “We did that the entire game, not just in bursts. We were able to maintain that for all four quarters.”
The Lakers, a more offense-oriented group, haven’t had many wins like this this season.
That’s part of the reason why Redick didn’t want to overreact to Sunday’s result or the way his team played.
“I’m not in a position where I can overreact,” Redick said. “You guys do that. The fans rightfully always have to overreact. That’s what makes fandom so great. My job is not to overreact. We’re 15-9 in our last 24. We’re top-10 offense and top-15 defense — that’s what we wanted to come into the season with this group, and that’s where our group is right now.”
But for a Lakers team that has made progress in recent weeks but still struggles to finish against top teams before Sunday, they can recognize the significance of Sunday’s win.
“It’s definitely a great win,” said Luka Doncic. “They just came and beat the Nuggets by 40 points, so I think it’s a pretty big win for us. It gives us a lot of confidence moving forward.”
With Sunday’s victory, the Lakers (39-25) moved ahead of the Nuggets for fifth place in the Western Conference standings.
The Lakers have won five of their last six games in response to a three-game losing streak in late February.
“I agree with JJ, we’re doing some really good things and there’s still room for improvement, but (Sunday) was a good step in the right direction,” Austin Reaves said. “To hold a team to 97 points of that caliber just shows how astute we have become on defense.”
The Lakers took advantage of the Knicks’ poor three-point shooting for most of Sunday, with New York making 8 of 34 three-point attempts (23.5%).
But the Lakers also helped their own luck with the defensive hustle they displayed, which was evident in the accusations they leveled against the Knicks.
“That’s a sacrifice play,” Redick said. “You have to put your body on the line. Our guys have been motivated to do that all year long. We’ve been really good with the charge. And for a lot of guys, I think about AR, (Marcus) Smart, like they’re not coming in to block shots on Karl-Anthony Towns.
“That’s your job as the low guy. You can do verticality, you can block a shot or you can take the lead. The offense was great. I thought based on what (the Knicks) just did in Denver and the comments I made to my coaching staff, they were just more physical than Denver, which says a lot because Denver is a physical team. And (Sunday) we were the more physical team.”
Are the Lakers more physical than a physical team?
That’s one of the biggest moves the Lakers can make at this point in the season.
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