Los Angeles Lakers: Examining the Lonzo Ball factor

The Los Angeles Lakers have been without Lonzo Ball for 11 games and his absence has been felt more than people realize.

It has been 11 games since Los Angeles Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball sprained his ankle on January 19th against the Rockets. With no imminent return in sight for Ball, and the Lakers season on the ropes, it’s time to take a look at all that Lonzo does for the Lakers that goes beyond the traditional and more tangible stats.

Mainly, the thing that no one ever wants to talk about. You know, that thing that any coach, in any sport, at any level (exception to Mike D’Antoni) says, “wins championships.” It’s also the thing the Lakers haven’t played in over a month. If you haven’t figured it out yet, it’s defense. Let’s talk about defense. Get ready, this is going to be very exciting.

First off, to anyone who is still upset about the trade deadline, it’s time to move on. This is our team we’ll be rooting for in the foreseeable future and we have to accept that and figure out how they can turn this team into not just a “playoff team” but a legitimate threat.

The Lakers have the weapons, the length, the versatility, the offense, LeBron James (playoff mode activated early this year), and up until a month ago, the defense. But something happened since then and people keep asking me, “Why can’t the Lakers play defense anymore?” and the response is always the same; Lonzo isn’t playing.

At first, this gets blown off because it comes off unsubstantiated but that is incorrect. Lonzo’s effect on this team is so much more than what we see and it’s the main reason I have been a big advocate of not including him in any trade offers with any team for the rest of time. But here are the facts about Lonzo Ball and why the Lakers are struggling to find their way without him.

Due to the immense amount of criticism that Lonzo gets on a game-to-game basis, the best way to show the impact he has on the game by providing you with the indisputable facts of the Lakers since Lonzo has been hurt. Just a warning, they aren’t pretty.

Through the first 47 games of the season, the Lakers defense was actually looking really good. Per nba.com, they had a defensive rating of 106.3, which was 6th in the NBA. They were 16th in opponents points per game averaging 111.4 and an overall net rating of 1.1, which was good enough for 14th in NBA, during that time. Now, remember, this is also with LeBron missing over a month due to injury.

Now we get to the Lonzo injury. In the 11 games since Lonzo went out, the Lakers have dropped to dead last in the NBA in opponent PPG giving up an average of 121.6 points per game.

Their defensive rating dropped to 116.8 (27th in the NBA) with an overall +/- of -10. That is bad enough for 2nd to last, in front of only the Phoenix Suns, who currently own the worst record in the NBA.

Not only have these defensive stats gone significantly down but almost every single defensive statistic for the Lakers has taken a hit. Call it a coincidence or whatever excuse you might think of, but the stats speak for themselves.

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Lonzo does more for this team than meets the eye. If these stats don’t jump out at you, there are a couple of other points to make that most people don’t recognize.

First off, Lonzo leads the team in deflections at 2.6 per game, which is top 25 in the NBA. Deflections not only leads to steals and fast breaks but also disrupt the offense’s strategy, gets players out of place and lead to forced shots and passes.

He is also second on the team in loose balls recovered, behind LeBron, who spends most of his time guarding off the ball while Lonzo is usually guarding the other teams point guard. As a result, most times he’s guarding the ball handler himself.

These stats go mostly unnoticed in games by fans because all they look at is his field goal and 3-point percentage and forget to look at the intangibles that Lonzo brings every game. He could very well be the best help defending point guard in the NBA with his length and ability to help multiple positions and help on taller players.

This next video starts on a defensive sequence against the Magic. Look how active Lonzo is. He starts by recovering off a pick-and-roll to help his teammate.

He then helps again on a dribble drive. Watch his ability to swipe at the ball handler and then recover immediately to ensure his man doesn’t get an open 3-point attempt.

He closes out perfectly enough to stay balanced and stay with his man the dribble drive. He then deflects the ball and when his man passes out, he switched onto the ball to ensure another open 3-point attempt can’t occur.

Finally, after Vucevic tries to drive by Tyson Chandler, Lonzo blindsides him with help defense and strips the ball right from him.

To have a player that can move like this on the defensive end and be able to help and rotate so effectively is very rare to come by. Plays like these are where you can really see the impact that Lonzo has on this team’s defense. If you watch that video in its entirety you can see just how incredible Lonzo is at defending and creating opportunities for the offense.

Without Lonzo, at times, the Lakers look completely lost on defense. Players are being left wide open, no one is getting back in transition, the help defense always looks to be a second late and sometimes players will straight up drive right past their first defender and no one will step up to help them, resulting in a wide open dunk or layup.

James Harden did this exact play in the last game, where he split a screen at the top of the 3-point line and went straight to the front of the rim without being touched.

Watch the next game the Lakers play tonight against the New Orleans Pelicans, specifically Jrue Holiday, and how easily he’ll get to the rim. I promise it will happen more times than you think.

The Lakers have a tough road ahead to try and make this final push to the playoffs and to be honest, with Lonzo being sidelined without a timetable for return, it’s going to be even tougher to achieve.

Say what you want about Lonzo and his streaky, at best, shooting, he is an incredible defender and his injury is the main reason for this Lakers defensive slump. You can be a cynic or you can be a believer but to quote one of my favorite movies A Few Good Men:

These are the facts of the case, and they are undisputed.