The last time the New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers met, barely a month ago, there was a seismic shift in the basketball landscape.
The Lakers pulled off a 128-112 victory at New York on Feb. 1 that was only a teaser of what was to come. They completely won the day when reports began to surface that Los Angeles had acquired star Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks.
The teams are set to meet again Thursday, this time in Los Angeles.
The victory on the court in the previous matchup was the Lakers’ sixth in a span of seven games, with much of the trade fallout centering on what the Lakers would look like without Anthony Davis, who was sent to the Mavericks in the deal, and with Doncic, who does not provide as much of an inside presence.
Since Doncic made his Lakers debut Feb. 10, the team has kept on winning. Los Angeles is now 8-2 with their new mix. Going back to Jan. 21, before the trade was made, the Lakers are 17-3.
The most recent victory came Tuesday when Doncic delivered 30 points and 15 assists in a 136-115 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans. Doncic became one of four Lakers players with 30 points and 15 assists in a single game, along with Jerry West, Magic Johnson and LeBron James.
“In order for us to be the team ultimately we need to be, the ball needs to be in Luka’s hands,” said LeBron James, who scored 34 points against New Orleans. “And then when Luka sits down, the ball can be in my hands or be (Austin Reaves’) hands when he gets back.”
Even with Reaves (calf) missing the past two games and Rui Hachimura (knee) out for the past three, the Lakers have kept on winning.
The Knicks will enter coming off a 114-102 home loss to the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday when OG Anunoby scored 29 points and Jalen Brunson added 25. Karl-Anthony Towns missed the game for personal reasons, while Josh Hart was just 1 of 8 from the floor with two points.
Towns was removed from the injury report and is expected to be available for Thursday’s matchup.
Now comes the start of a West Coast road trip on Thursday where four of the five games will be played in California, including a rematch against the Warriors on March 15.
Brunson, who has a team-best 26.1 points per game with 7.4 assists, wants to keep things simple moving forward.
“Just focus on the Lakers and after that, focus on the next one,” Brunson said. “Just keep doing one game at a time the way we have been doing.”
That simplistic approach has worked well with the Knicks going 16-8 since Jan. 8, while not losing more than two consecutive games in the stretch.
In the previous meeting against the Lakers, Hart had 26 points for the Knicks against his former team on 11-of-16 shooting and also supplied 11 assists. The Lakers pulled away by outscoring the Knicks 69-58 in the second half, when Reaves had 17 of his 27 points, while James added 33 in the game.
