Lakers: How LA Won Four Straight Games, With Four Different Starting Lineups
Your Los Angeles Lakers are riding high -- higher than they have all season, in fact, despite missing arguably their best player in big man Anthony Davis. The team is on a four-game win streak after securing its latest victory, a 130-114 demolition of the visiting Atlanta Hawks that has NBA Twitter calling for Nate McMillan's head.
Most impressively, Los Angeles has won those games with four different starting lineups:
- Lakers-Hawks, 12/30/22 (a 130-121 win): Dennis Schröder, Patrick Beverley, Austin Reaves, LeBron James, Thomas Bryant
- Lakers-Hornets, 1/2/23 (a 121-115 win): Dennis Schröder, Patrick Beverley, Troy Brown Jr., LeBron James, Thomas Bryant
- Lakers-Heat, 1/4/23 (a 112-109 win) - Dennis Schröder, Patrick Beverley, Austin Reaves, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Thomas Bryant
- Lakers-Hawks II, 1/6/23 (the aforementioned 130-114 demolition): Dennis Schröder, Patrick Beverley, Juan Toscano-Anderson, LeBron James, Thomas Bryant
The team is still just 18-21 thus far this season (12th in the West), but time will tell. Head coach Darvin Ham, when asked about how LA seems to have turned things around despite all its lineup injury difficulties, offered up a multitude of explicative factors:
"I just think our sense of urgency, our competitiveness, togetherness, aggressiveness on both sides of the ball, it's remained consistent," Ham remarked. We've had it in flashes during the course of a 48-minute game, but here recently we've been maintaining it and being more consistent with it. It's showing. It's a balanced effort. The ball is moving, guys are covering for one another defensively, we're rebounding, we're getting defensive boards... All in all, I'm really pleased. We just gotta fill our cups back up and get ready to suit up and go play against a really good Sacramento Kings team."
As Ham was alluding to yesterday, LA will be heading up to the state capitol today as it faces off against the revitalized Kings, who at 20-17 are currently the fifth seed in the West.
