The Los Angeles Lakers had their third loss in their last four games on Monday when they fell short to the New York Knicks, 114-109. They now have a 15-12 record and possession of eighth place in the Western Conference, which isn’t exactly where they expected to be by this point of the season.
They have had a number of mild to moderate injuries, but they were mostly healthy on Monday. They will now leave home for a three-game road trip where they will play the Chicago Bulls, Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder within a span of four days. Once they return home, they will host the Boston Celtics, who are the best team in the NBA in the minds of many, on Christmas Day before another road game against the 20-5 Timberwolves on Dec. 30.
The Lakers are running out of time to gather and maintain any real momentum, not to mention climb the standings. After Monday’s loss, LeBron James said his team needs to finish the month strong and stay focused.
LeBron James on the mindset heading into this roadtrip: "Get some rest, get healthy and try to finish out December the right way… we just got to mentally stay locked in." pic.twitter.com/c1KXU1BuyA
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) December 19, 2023
After playing five of their remaining games in December on the road, the Lakers will have a nice stretch of home games for a while. Eleven of their first 12 contests in January will be at Crypto.com Arena, and after that comes a six-game road trip, which will be followed by a stretch of 18 out of 19 games that will take place in the Pacific time zone.
