The Los Angeles Lakers have struggled without the injured Lonzo Ball, making it look like he is the team’s MVP.
The Los Angeles Lakers have had a rough stretch the past month. This has culminated in a seven-game losing streak losses in 10 of their last 11 games. The schedule hasn’t been too kind to them, and the Lakers have recently been hurt by injuries.
One of the players affected has been Lonzo Ball, who has missed the past five games due to a shoulder injury. If the Lakers weren’t sure of how much of an impact Lonzo has had on the team, they sure know now judging from the stats coming from those five games. You could say he is the most valuable player on the team after looking at the results of his absence.
Lonzo Ball had a very rough start to the season but was really improving in the weeks leading up to his injury. This improvement was contributing to the Lakers’ overall play, with them playing very close games against the very good teams in their brutal December schedule.
Decrease in Net Rating
In the five games leading up to Lonzo’s injury, the Lakers had an average net rating (the difference between their offensive rating and defensive rating) of -0.86.
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This may not seem good, but those five games came against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets, and Golden State Warriors, twice. However, their average net rating in the five games without Lonzo is -14.4, which is atrocious.
The defensive rating specifically has fallen without Lonzo. This may come as a surprise to the common NBA fan who considered Lonzo’s defense to be a weakness. They would also be surprised to find out Lonzo has the second-best defensive rating on the Lakers of players who play at least 10.0 mpg (Brook Lopez is first).
Slowed Down Lakers
One of Lonzo’s greatest strengths is being able to push the ball up the court for his team. This is shown in the Lakers’ Pace factor, which they lead the league in.
The Lakers’ Pace for the season is 103.90 which is right about where it was in the five games leading up to Lonzo’s injury. They’ve slowed down in the past five games without Lonzo, with their Pace being 100.22. The Lakers not only miss him on defense but miss his point guard skills on offense too.
Looking at results since he was injured, the argument is made for Lonzo Ball being the most valuable player on this team. You could make the argument for Kyle Kuzma being the Lakers MVP, as his scoring and overall play has exceptional.
Lonzo, though, may have more impact on the entire team and may, therefore, be more valuable. Let’s just hope we don’t see any more games without both of these two players, which sadly, might happen Wednesday night at home.
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Here’s to a better 2018 than our 2017, Lakers fans.