The Los Angeles Lakers recently dropped their rivalry game with the Boston Celtics. In the loss, Luke Walton blamed the defense.
For the past few seasons, the Los Angeles Lakers have been one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA. One of the reasons why they have been off to a good start this season has been because of their improvement on the defensive end.
Even though the Lakers only allowed 107 points to the Celtics, it was the defense that took the blame for the loss. On what was clearly an off shooting night for the Celtics, the Lakers didn’t close out defensive possessions with rebounds.
In the loss, the Celtics were able to grab 16 offensive rebounds to help get extra possessions despite the off shooting night. Overall, the Lakers have been a much better team this season on the defensive end of the court. However, that was not the case against the Celtics.
Luke said the LAL team defense was "terrible...The work we’ve been doing & mentality we’ve been building went out the door today.” (on SPSN)
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) November 9, 2017
One of the big red flags in this game was the performance of Aaron Baynes. It looked like the Lakers caught a huge break getting to play the Celtics without their center Al Horford. However, Baynes ended up looking like one of the best players on the court. On Wednesday, Baynes totaled a team-high 21 points on 8-for-12 shooting from the field.
As a backup center for most of his career, it was unacceptable for the Lakers to allow him to be the leading scorer for the Celtics. However, Baynes’ effort on the offensive end proved that he just simply wanted it more than the Lakers.
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If the Lakers want to contend in the extremely tough Western Conference this season, they are going to need to be locked in defensively. With a lot of All-Star talent on the teams out West, the Lakers need to be prepared every night defensively. The loss to the Celtics was certainly a game where the Lakers missed Larry Nance Jr. On a night where the Lakers’ frontcourt lacked energy and focus at times, Nance would have certainly been a needed spark.