With a tough schedule in their immediate future, the Lakers are about to reveal who this team really is.
The last week has shown just how quickly the vibes can change in a season. Through Tuesday, the Lakers were on a six-game win streak, having taken care of business against a string of teams they, frankly, should have taken care of business against.
Even most of the way through Friday’s game against the Magic, things felt great. Then, over the span of five quarters, The vibes drastically shifted.
After handing a win to the Magic in the fourth quarter, the Lakers followed that up with as demoralizing a loss to the Nuggets as they’ve had in the last two-plus seasons, a remarkably high bar.
Now, things feel much different. The Lakers failed a pair of tests that would show where they are this season and, now, they’re about to face a whole lot more.
Starting with Tuesday’s game in Phoenix and running through Christmas, a span of 30 days, the Lakers will play nine of their 12 games on the road. Nine of those games will also come against the Western Conference foes.
It’ll be the seventh-hardest strength of schedule in the league during that span. No one will play more than the 12 games they will play in that span. No one will play more than the nine road games they will play during that span.
Only one team, the Nuggets, will travel more miles than the Lakers during that span. Based on current team records, it’ll be the seventh-hardest schedule during that span.
That also is yet to account for the week of the end of the In-Season Tournament, where the Lakers will either defend their title all the way to the final or simply play a pair of games, one home and one away, mixed into all that as well.
In short, for everything we’ve learned about the Lakers through the first 16 games, we will learn a lot more over the next month.
This stretch will carry on past Dec. 15, when players who signed contracts in the offseason can be traded. The Lakers will have a surer idea of what this team is and what it will still need.
It may reveal that this team is far from a contender and needs a massive rework. That feels unlikely given what we’ve seen so far of the purple and gold, but a lot can change in the span of a month, as we’ve already seen.
It could also reveal that this is a serious Lakers team that could compete at a high level with just a few changes. While the Lakers have failed some recent tests, it has felt at times — the Nuggets game notwithstanding — that this team is on the precipice of becoming something even better.
The reality will likely fall somewhere in the middle, but how close to one side or the other will determine how this franchise moves toward the trade deadline.
A lot can change in just a short period of time, as fans saw over the weekend. Which means a whole lot will be found out over this next month.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.
