Dwight Howard says the Lakers want to ‘dominate’ road games early and put teams away

The Los Angeles Lakers are the best road team in the NBA. That’s not an opinion — that’s a fact.

With a 96-87 win over the Orlando Magic at the Amway Center on Wednesday, the Lakers have are now 12-1 on the road. Their lone loss away from home came on opening night against the LA Clippers, but even that was at Staples Center. Since then, they’ve been perfect on the road.

After Wednesday night’s game, Dwight Howard told reporters that the Lakers have made a collective effort to be one of the toughest roads teams in the league (via Spectrum SportsNet):

“When we get on the road we want to dominate. We want to come out, get our fans on our side early and go out there and win the game. It’s tough winning on the road, especially when we’re going to get teams’ best shot every single night, but this team is built for it. We have experience playing this game, so we understand the difficulties playing on the road.”

For all the talk of the Lakers having an easy schedule, some of the toughest games they’ve played this season have come on the road, and they’ve managed to win them. Of note, they’ve beaten the Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets and the Dallas Mavericks in their respective arenas this season. That’s no small feat.

The Lakers will have the opportunity to show just how mighty they can be on the road on Friday when they take on the Miami Heat, a team that hasn’t lost at home this season. Then, a week from Friday, they’ll pay a visit to the Fiserv Forum to play the Milwaukee Bucks, who have only lost one game at home this season and are currently tied with the Lakers for the best record in the NBA (22-3).

If they pull both of those wins out, there will be no debating who the best road team — and the best team, in general — in the NBA is.

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