The Lakers defeating the red-hot Knicks, 110-97, on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena is impressive by itself.
Entering Sunday with a 4-12 record against teams with winning percentages of .600 or better, the Lakers, for at least one day, calmed the concerns 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 manner in which they won, on the back of hustle plays and defense, made Sunday even more impressive and the Lakers’ best win of the season so far.
“There was one key, and that was multiple efforts,” coach JJ Redick said. “We did that throughout the game, not just in spurts. We were able to sustain that for all four quarters.”
The Lakers, a more offense-oriented group, don’t have many wins like that this season.
Which is 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 should always overreact. It’s what makes fandom so awesome. 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 be coming into the season with this group, and that’s where our group is right now.”
But for a Lakers team that’s made progress over the last few weeks but still struggled to finish against top teams before Sunday, they can recognize the significance of Sunday’s win.
“It’s a pretty awesome win, for sure,” Luka Doncic said. “They just came and beat the Nuggets by 40, so I think it’s a pretty big win for us. It gives us a lot of confidence moving forward.”
With the win Sunday, the Lakers (39-25) inched ahead of the Nuggets for the fifth spot in the Western Conference standings.
The Lakers have won five of their last six games in response to the three-game losing streak they went on in late February.
“I agree with JJ: We’re doing some really good things and we still have 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 our grittiness that we’ve come to enjoy doing on the defensive end.”
The Lakers benefited from the Knicks’ poor 3-point shooting for most of Sunday, with New York making 8 of 34 3-point attempts (23.5%).
But the Lakers also helped make their own luck with the defensive hustle they displayed, evident by the charges they drew against the Knicks.
“That’s a sacrificial play,” Redick said. “You gotta put your body on the line. Our guys have been motivated to do that all year. We’ve been really good with the charges. And for a lot of guys, I think of AR, (Marcus) Smart, like they’re not coming over to block shots on Karl-Anthony Towns.
“That’s your job as the low man. You can do verticality, you can block a shot or you can take a charge. The charges were great. I thought based on what (the Knicks) just did in Denver and the comments I made to my coaching staff, just they were more physical than Denver, which is saying a lot because Denver is a physical team. And (Sunday), we were the more physical team.”
The Lakers being more physical than a physical team?
That is one of the biggest steps the Lakers can take at this point in the season.
