They had found a system that works for them, Westbrook does not need to be a triple-double man, he can take care of the 2nd unit and they are effective with that. The Lakers now have become a threat, they were disregarded early but now they are winning games and that resulted in an improvement in their ranking.
Lakers are number 13 now but the good news is they are 7-3 on their last 10 games.
They have won their last 2 games but it's not enough to get up to rank 10 in the western conference because their rivals there are already won double digits way ahead of them. For now, they are getting serious and might improve their rank in the upcoming weeks before the end of this year and might gonna get different positive outcomes after that because they are starting to play effectively these past few days. LBJ even surpassed Magic Johnson in all-time Assists and he could still play and stretch that record furthermore to be able to give the upcoming NBA stars to even come close to it.