Can the Lakers overcome a tough March schedule?

With 17 games in 30 days, March is a make-or-break month for the Lakers.

Don’t look now, but the Lakers are the hottest team in the Western Conference. With five straight wins, they have the longest winning streak in the West and are tied with the best record across the last ten games at 8-2.

Thanks to the Memphis Grizzlies losing to the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night, they also currently hold the No. 3 spot and are just one game behind the Nuggets for second.

However, the Lakers didn’t come this far to get this far.

To continue their winning ways and rise into legitimate title contention, they’ll have to go through a gauntlet in March.

Overall, the Lakers have the fifth-toughest schedule for the rest of the season and are tied for the most games left to play, at 24. However, this isn’t a scenario where tough games are spread out over the final two months of the season. The challenges begin right away.

This month, they’ll play 17 games in 30 days, including three back-to-backs over eight days. Even LeBron James couldn’t believe how rough this stretch will be.

These games will be not only be tough from a physical standpoint, but the competition isn’t exactly a breeze either.

The Lakers will have to play the Bucks on the road, then immediately fly out of Milwaukee to take on the Nuggets. After a day off, they’ll come home for a back-to-back against the Suns and Spurs.

The Spurs game is easy on paper and the Suns have looked rough all season, but Phoenix still has Kevin Durant and Devin Booker on the team. Then, after another day off, they’ll play the Spurs and Nuggets again at home to wrap up the series of games.

Winning two back-to-back games is difficult, as is beating the same team twice in a short period. The Lakers will have to do a combination of both three times in a little over a week if they want to come out of this stretch on top.

Before they even get to this stretch, they’ll still have to take on the Clippers at home. After playing the Pelicans, one of the worst teams in the league, they'll then welcome in the New York Knicks later this week, followed by a road game against the defending champs, the Boston Celtics. A trip to Brooklyn is the final game before their six-games-in-eight-days stretch.

To wrap up March, the Lakers will go on a four-game road trip and play against above .500 teams in the Pacers and Grizzlies before ending the madness at home against the Rockets on the last day of the month.

This Lakers schedule is tough, grueling or whatever word you want to use to describe a brutal situation here.

In February, the purple and gold went 10-2, had the fourth-best plus-minus at 9.8 and had the best defensive rating in the NBA at 107.2. And they were this successful all while navigating through trading for Luka Dončić, getting him back from his calf injury and, on the fly, implementing him into the starting lineup.

March will present the Lakers with many challenges, but it also offers opportunities. They are just a game away from the No. 2 seed.

Suppose the Lakers take care of business and bring the same level of energy and focus they had in February into March. In that case, they’ll start April near the top of the West and primed for a legitimate shot at winning the NBA title not in the coming years with Luka as a franchise player, but right now with LeBron James still at the top of his game.

That’s the scenario that Lakers fans want to see. Now, it’s time for the team to bring that to reality.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.