NBA

Lakers are the NBA team in current best form this 2023

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Antonio Kozlow
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Antonio Kozlow Sports Editor

Antonio is a life long sports enthusiast and professional journalist, who shares an obssesive urge to find and dig up the most interesting facts to guide gamblers towards more exciting, yet safe bets. In his own words, ''you can never really know enough about the things you love''.

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Sports Editor

Updated09 Jan 2023

Jazz trade Patrick Beverley to Lakers for Talen Horton-Tucker

Who would’ve thought? After a really uninspiring beginning of the NBA season, the Lakers now are the most in-form team of the year, following 5 straight victories, four of them in 2023. 

No other team runs unbeaten this year like the Lakers, after winning against Miami Heat, Charlotte Hornets, twice against the Atlanta Hawks and finally beating the Sacramento Kings on the weekend. This last one, required King James in MVP mode (37 points, 7 assists and 8 rebounds), but who in no way overshadow’s Thomas Bryant’s 29 point contribution and Dennis Schröder’s 27 points.

Coach Darvin Han praised his team’s spirit after the game: ”I thought we did an excellent job. Seventy points in the paint. That’s who we are. We want to play fast, physical and free, with force. That was actually a representation of our physicality.”

38 points per game at 38

LeBron James just keeps pushing the limits. His latest achievement has been to drop 90 points in his last two games he’s played since turning 38 years old, and showing this renewed thirst for scoring as he is relentlessly attacking the rim. Seems like the debate on the Greatest of all Time will continue for long, especially as he is soon to overcome Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s famous scoring record.

 

 

Probably the most impressive victory was their first of the year against the Heat, when they proved to be a true team without LeBron and Anthony Davis, who is still out of the picture due to injury. This game inspired us at Basketball Insiders to write a special report on the Top 10 times a NBA team has playera better without their stars.

The Lakers stand 11th in the West, but share the same amount of victories as the Trail Blazers who are 8th of the Conference. Their next game will be tonight (6pm PST) in Colorado against the Denver Nuggets.