February record predictions
The Lakers are winners of 11 out of their last 13 games and are currently on a 5-game winning streak. So far, they have won all of their February games, beating the Knicks, Clippers, Warriors and Pacers. As of writing this, they stand at 31-19 and .5 games back of the 4th seeded Rockets.
Here's what the remaining February schedule looks like with my predictions of each outcome:
- Vs Jazz - W
- @ Jazz - W
- Vs Hornets - W
- @ Blazers - W
- @ Nuggets - L
- Vs Mavericks - W
- Vs Timberwolves - L
- Vs Clippers - W
This is a 6-2 record, that would place them at 37-21 on the season and 10-2 for the month of February. In their next 4 games they will take on sub .500 teams in which the Lakers are 15-4 against. However, the Blazers are a red-hot team as of late, winning 8 of 10, and hold the best defensive rating in that span.
Some notable games in this stretch. You get the Nuggets in Denver. I would love nothing more than for the Lakers to win this one, however I want to keep my expectations and predictions as reasonable as possible and the Lakers, as much as I'd like them to, won't win every single game. Denver is playing really well, although I'm interested in seeing how much of a difference Vando and DFS make in terms of limiting guys like Gordon, Porter Jr. and Murray.
All eyes will be on the Mavs game. Luka's first matchup against his former team. It looks like Anthony Davis will unfortunately miss that game due to a left adductor strain and is expected to be out multiple weeks, maybe even a month according to ESPN's Shams Charania.
The Timberwolves sit right behind the Lakers at 6th. That's a game I can see LA possibly dropping. The Clippers, while great defensively, aren't all that impressive offensively and are just 12-19 against teams over .500. The Lakers should take care of business there.
I expect LA to have a good finish to the month of February and they're going to need to stack all of the wins they can get, because March is where things really get tough on the schedule. They have a total of 4 back to backs and a stretch of 3 in a row! You read that right, 3 back to backs in a row: @MIL/@DEN, vsPHX/vsSAS, vsDEN/vsMIL.
Brutal schedule to end the year and here's to hoping for good health going into April.