Los Angeles Lakers: Luke Walton pleased with recent defensive showing

The Los Angeles Lakers were able to get back to the .500 mark thanks to a great defensive showing.

When LeBron James signed with the Los Angeles Lakers, we all knew that it was going to take some time for everyone to get adjusted. The Lakers were able to add a lot of valuable pieces this offseason, but chemistry takes time.

As we have seen in the past when James switches teams, the great results aren’t there right away. While it hasn’t been a great start for the Lakers, they do find themselves at .500, and are coming off a very encouraging win against the Kings.

The Kings have been one of the surprise teams this season, and the Lakers were able to get a nice victory on the road. Against a team with a lot of young offensive talent, the Lakers were able to have one of their best defensive games of the season.

After the win, Luke Walton credited the defensive performance for helping to get the team back to .500. Here’s what he had to say on Spectrum SportsNet with text via LakersNation.com.

"“It’s nice to get to .500, but the significance of tonight’s game I think was our defense and holding a team to 80-points or something around there. I told our guys this is why defense means so much to us. We shot 40 percent from the floor tonight, we shot 30 percent from three, we shot 60-something percent from the free throw line and we were still able to win by 15 points on the road because you take care of your business on the defensive end. Without defense on a shooting night like we had tonight, no chance we can win this game.”"

One of the reasons for the Lakers’ improvement last season was because of how they played on the defensive end. The Lakers improved a ton on that end of the court, as additions like Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Josh Hart, and Lonzo Ball all helped to improve the defense.

After having a lot of struggles on defense this season, the Lakers appear to be getting back to what they were able to do last season. Adding Tyson Chandler to help compliment JaVale McGee has played dividends instantly. Having two strong defensive centers gives the Lakers an anchor in the middle at all times. With strong wing defenders, the defense should continue to improve as the season goes on.