LOS ANGELES — It had been 423 long, meandering days since the Lakers were last a .500 team.
But they got there Friday with an exhausting, physical 116-111 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Anthony Davis crushed the undersized Thunder with an aggressive, attacking attitude Friday at Crypto.com Arena and the Lakers improved to 37-37 this season.
Davis scored 37 points on incredibly efficient 15-for-21 shooting and added 14 rebounds to help push the Lakers into a tie for seventh with Minnesota in the Western Conference.
It was intense, it was intriguing and the Lakers took another step toward post-season relevancy.
Afterward, Davis told Spectrum SportsNet that “every game feels like a Game 7.”
“Every game is a must-win for us,” he said. “We’ve got to come in and play with that sense of urgency Coach is always talking about. We’ve been able to do that.”
As an added bonus, the Lakers clinched the season series against the Thunder, 2-1, earning the first tiebreaker if they ended up tied in the standings with Oklahoma City (36-38).
The Lakers hadn’t been .500 since beating Brooklyn on Jan. 25 last year to move to 24-24. It was mostly downhill from there last season and was followed by a halting 2-10 start this season.
It’s been a grind to even get back to the same number of wins as losses.
A .500 record isn’t something normally celebrated by the Lakers. Not when you have 17 championships and all those retired jerseys on the arena wall.
But it’s easy to see reasons for inconsistency with LeBron James and Davis each missing more than a third of the season so far, not to mention the glaring chemistry issues until last month’s trade deadline shook up the team.
“We’ve got to .500, and now it’s time to get on the other side,” Davis said.
The Lakers have eight regular-season games left, including a home contest Sunday against Chicago before five consecutive road games.
Their goal since the All-Star break is to get to sixth in the West and earn a guaranteed first-round playoff series. The alternative, and where they are right now, is the riskier four-team play-in tournament that will send two more teams to the first round.
At any rate, Oklahoma City doesn’t have the tallest team. None of their rotation players are over 6 foot 9. Think Davis was aware of this?
He was aggressive from the start and dunked home three of his first six baskets.
“We say ‘Love and live in the paint,’ and it starts with [Davis] not settling,” Lakers Coach Darvin Ham said, complimenting Davis’ attacking nature Friday.
The Lakers were up 17 in the second quarter but ahead by only one going into the fourth as the Thunder gradually ate into the lead. Maybe it was because the Lakers were short-handed without LeBron James (strained foot tendon) and D’Angelo Russell (sore hip).
Dennis Schroder got the start in place of Russell and scored 21 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter as the Lakers staved off the Thunder.
Lakers guard Lonnie Walker IV also made an impact. He never left the bench in their three previous games but scored 20 points Friday in his first game action in nine days.
“I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge Lonnie Walker,” Ham said. “He’s the definition of what a pro is supposed to do at this level.”
How much can the Lakers improve their position in the standings between now and their April 9 regular-season finale? The next two weeks will reveal a lot about them.
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