For much of this season, the Los Angeles Lakers were a top 10 defensive team. But in recent games, they’ve regressed and become one of the league’s worst on defense.
Early this season, it was discussed how the Los Angeles Lakers had dramatically improved on the defensive end, especially compared to the first year of the Luke Walton regime in 2016-17.
When the purple and gold started 2-5 this season, they were giving up 122.3 points per game, which is a surefire recipe for failure in the NBA, especially in this day and age of up-tempo offenses. But, then they signed backup center Tyson Chandler. After that, they did a 180 on the defensive end, climbing deep into the top-10 of defensive efficiency.
Even when they struggled in January due to injuries to LeBron James, Rajon Rondo, Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma, they maintained their defense, only giving up 107.6 points per 100 possessions, which put them sixth in the league for that month. But, lately, their defense has been flimsier than a piece of tissue paper.
Through the first half of February, the Lakers defensive rating has been 122.6, which is dead last in the league. That is downright despicable. The fact that the Lakers have almost their whole squad healthy makes it that much more inexcusable.
I know the Lonzo Ball fanboys are saying to themselves right now, “My boy Lonzo is the reason the Lakers are struggling on defense right now. He is a future Hall of Famer and once he comes back the Lakers will be back in the top 10 in team defense.”
Yes, Ball’s length and defensive effort will help, whenever he returns. But this is a team-wide problem that won’t be fixed by the return of a sophomore who is still going through his trials and tribulations at the NBA level.
Besides, they still have JaVale McGee, Brandon Ingram and Tyson Chandler healthy and in the lineup, probably the three most valuable defensive players outside of Ball. Again, no excuses.
Where exactly have the Lakers been struggling on defense? These three issues are the same bugaboos that were plaguing the team until early November.