Stats With Context: 50-Game Check
The Lakers are trending the right way, but is the defensive improvement for real?
Fifty games in, well past the halfway point, and it’s time for a 50-game check. Technically we’re 51 games in, but trade-deadline coverage pushed this one back a night.
I try to embed big-picture context into game coverage, but these checkpoints are where I step back, zoom out, and evaluate the larger trends and developments taking shape.
At the last 40-game check, things looked bleak. The Lakers were coming off a stretch where they lost five of six games, likely hitting their low point of the season. They were banged up, missing Austin Reaves, and heading into a rough eight-game road trip prompting me to call for reinforcements at the deadline.
The trade deadline has now passed, with the Lakers making only a minor upgrade. On the court, however, the outlook has improved significantly. Not only did they survive the long road trip, they’ve gone 8–3 since the last check and, at 32–19, are currently tied with the Rockets for fourth in the West. Before going down with what is hopefully a minor hamstring strain, Luka Dončić was on fire, earning Western Conference Player of the Month honors. Austin Reaves also returned to the lineup after missing 19 games with a calf strain.
And the defense, the biggest issue for much of the season, has improved recently and will be the central focus of this check.
With three games remaining before the All-Star break, the Lakers are in a strong position to start the second half of the season, healthy and pushing toward the spots that would bring home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Today’s highlights:
Quick look at the Western Conference race
Lakers point differential and Four Factors check
Signs of improved defense
Rotation changes and leaning into size
Getting weird with zone defense
Is this sustainable over a larger sample?
A fast-break transformation
Can this balance hold with all three stars healthy?
1-Quick look at the Western Conference race
Chart context: As always, we’ll start with a big-picture conference view before zooming in on the Lakers. A few quick observations stand out.
The Thunder have come back to earth, going 5–5 over their last ten games and showing some signs of vulnerability. Even so, they remain one of only two teams, along with the Rockets, that still rank in the top five overall on both offense and defense.
Most other contenders have hit some form of turbulence. The Spurs, like the Lakers, are 7–3 over their last ten, but nearly everyone else appears ready for the break to regroup and recover. Denver survived a stretch without Nikola Jokić, but injuries to Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson followed, and the Nuggets’ defense continues to sit outside the top 20. Minnesota, which briefly flirted with top-five status on both ends of the floor earlier in the season, has also trended downward in recent weeks.
The teams that once threatened the Lakers from behind have also lost a step. The Suns remain one of the season’s better surprises, ranking as a top-ten defense, but without Devin Booker their offense has slipped. Meanwhile, two other veteran teams appear to have taken damaging hits to their 2025–26 outlooks. The Clippers made a dramatic pivot by trading James Harden and Ivica Zubac, while the Warriors lost Jimmy Butler for the remainder of the season with a torn right ACL. The latter effectively turns the middle of the West into a seven-team race for the six direct playoff spots.
