Los Angeles Lakers: 5 Takeaways from loss to Denver Nuggets

4. Who’s playing the four and five on the back line?

"I’ll say it again…positionless basketball is nice to talk about, but the NBA is about matchups. The Nuggets have an advantage already on the back line on offense and defense. Rebounding is the number one issue here. There were times that the Lakers back line was being muscled. Defense wins championships and rebounds brings rings."

Let me put it this way…the Lakers didn’t stop Mason Plumlee…the free throw line did. Plumlee rolled the Lakers with 23 points on 11-11 from the field and a lot of dunks. The only thing Plumlee did wrong was miss three free throws. Nikola Jokic had a field day as well, scoring 20 points on only ten shots. The pick and roll defense was non existent. Forget this can LeBron James mesh with his teammates stuff. Let’s try stopping the simple pick and roll.

or securing a rebound…

Defense is a choice Lakers fans! Effort is a choice! Rebounding is a…this is getting redundant isn’t it?