Spencer Dinwiddie Says Lakers ‘Have The Talent Level To Beat Anybody’

The Lakers are only 33-28 on the season, but they have defeated some of the top teams in the NBA, headlined by wins over the Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns and Boston Celtics. 

“Obviously I’m not necessarily the best analyst of everything that’s going on. I’ve only been here for a couple weeks,” Dinwiddie said. “But, you know, it’s pretty evident that we have the talent level to beat anybody any night.”

The Lakers are in ninth place in the Western Conference standings. If the season ended today, they would face the Golden State Warriors in the 9-10 NBA play-in tournament game.

LAL beat Golden State in the second round of the 2023 playoffs in six games. 

Tomorrow (3/2) is a big game for the Lakers, who host the Denver Nuggets. LAL hasn’t beaten Denver since December 16, 2022. 

“Obviously they’ve had our number for a while, but I don’t think we look at it as we’ve gotta beat them for our own personal morale or something like that,” Lakers superstar Anthony Davis said. “We just wanna get a win and kind of keep this going knowing the position that we’re trying to climb up the ladder. So, I mean, we haven’t talked about it, but I think overall, just getting a win, to keep this going, will be helpful for us. And then in the midst of that, beating them will definitely feel good.”

The Lakers went 9-3 in February. Their March schedule is extremely difficult, though. LAL faces the Nuggets, Thunder, Sacramento Kings, Milwaukee Bucks, Warriors, Philadelphia 76ers and Indiana Pacers.

“It’s there. That’s the only, I wouldn’t even call it a concern. That’s the only issue, you know, it’s like how can we make last night’s fourth quarter, tonight’s overtime more consistent?” Lakers head coach Darvin Ham said. “No one is gonna play lockdown defense for 48 minutes. Players, teams are too good in this league. So you have to make timely stops, but you also have to have long durations of activity, alertness, doing your work early, really that laser focus on that side of the ball. Because the truth be told is that side of the ball, when you’re really good on that side of the ball consistently, then it frees up a lot for your offense.”