The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday to enter the All-Star break with a 33-21 record, good enough for fifth in the Western Conference. The team's 0.0 point differential might tell a different story, but plenty can change between now and the end of the season.

Perhaps the Lakers' situation could be better if not for injuries, as their core three of Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, and LeBron James have played just 10 games together, and not many of those have come with all three of them playing at their best this season. Still, they remain firmly in the playoff race.

After the win over the Mavericks, 124-104, on Thursday, JJ Redick was asked about the Lakers' record, giving his take on how they've battled the injury situation.

"If you told me in September that we'd be...top five in the West and we've had those guys for 10 games...I'd take that. Certainly doesn't mean the day-to-day internal pressure you put on yourself, and I know the guys put on themselves because they care, doesn't mean that's going away," Redick said.

The right mindset to have, the Lakers should be at full health coming out of the All-Star break, with a manageable schedule for the first month back. They have just three road games between February 20th and March 14th, with the furthest they travel east being to Denver.

"You gotta feel good about the last 14 games, outside of the San Antonio game the other night," he added.

The Spurs game was a tough loss by nearly 30 points, but the Lakers were without most of their best players, so there wasn't much hope to begin with anyway. With Luke Kennard bringing more shooting to the lineup via his addition, it should only help the stars and himself get open shots going forward this season.

LA was eliminated in five games in the first round of the playoffs last season by the Minnesota Timberwolves, and if the playoffs started today, they'd meet the Houston Rockets in the first round.

Even though the Lakers have plenty of weaknesses still to sort out on their roster, they'll be in a good place if they can get Reaves, Doncic, and LeBron all playing at a high level and force opposing defenses to make tough decisions on who they try to stop.

The Lakers return to action out of the All-Star break against the Los Angeles Clippers at the Crypto.com Arena.