Lake Show Life
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Los Angeles Lakers rocking best transition offense so far

By Charlie Fischer

PORTLAND, OR - OCTOBER 18: LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers dribbles the ball up court against the Portland Trail Blazers on October 18, 2018 at the Moda Center Arena in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OR - OCTOBER 18: LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers dribbles the ball up court against the Portland Trail Blazers on October 18, 2018 at the Moda Center Arena in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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While struggling in some areas, the Los Angeles Lakers currently have the best fastbreak offense in the NBA.

Early on in the season, the Los Angeles Lakers have expectedly struggled in some areas. Three-point shooting and at times defense to name a few. There is one area that the Lakers are completely dominating in now, and that is their fastbreak offense.

When Magic Johnson recruited Lebron James over the summer, both men had a vision that the Lakers would push the pace religiously. Getting out into transition creates easy baskets, and allows them to cover up their cold start from 3-point land.

RIght now the Lakers are ahead of the pack, averaging 26.8 fastbreak points per game. The Golden State Warriors come in at number two with 23.2 points in transition per game. Overall, only two other teams are averaging more than 20 fastbreak points per game, the Washington Wizards, and Sacramento Kings.

The fastbreak points are how the Lakers score most of their points in a given game, with an NBA best 21.9 percent coming from transition buckets. Warriors are second in league with 19.2 percent.

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While leading the way in fastbreak points, the Lakers also rank second in the NBA in points in the paint, bringing in 63.7 per game. Only the New Orleans Pelicans are scoring more in the paint at 65.6 per game.

The Lakers built this team to take a crack at the Golden State Warriors using a different tactic, getting up and down, playing as fast as possible.

Before the season started, Magic had this to say about Los Angeles pushing the pace:

"”It’s going to be fast. It’s going to be up-and-down basketball. But we didn’t build this for the regular season, we built this for the playoffs. Because all the teams that had great shooters lost. Only one team survived, and that was Golden State, and you can’t out Golden State, Golden State. So you have to realize, if I’m going to try and deal with them, you’re not going to get three shooters as they have, so you have to get somebody to go up against them and so we built this team to say hey, we got some tough-minded guys and we want to play an up-and-down style.”"

The ball will always move faster than any player can, so for the Lakers to be successful in transition, sharing the ball is their best bet.

Coming in behind the Warriors and New Orleans Pelicans, Lakers are third in assists per game with 27.3 per contest. Being second in the NBA in two-point shot percentage also shows the Lakers are getting high-quality shots, and taking advantage of them

With the bench capable of going 10 or 11 players deep without a severe drop off in productivity, the Lakers have the personnel to keep up this pace for the entire season, barring injuries.

dark. Next. 8 Early Observations For Lakers in 2018-19

The Lakeshow is sticking to the script early, and developing a solid defense can make the Lakers a spooky team to face. This is going to be fun!

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