Throughout the early stages of the season, the Los Angeles Lakers have consistently shown that they are a defensive juggernaut.
Albeit the Los Angeles Lakers are only about a half dozen games into the 2019-20 campaign, they are already off to a blazing start. With a 6-1 record, their start is the strongest the team has had since the 2010-11 season, when they were fresh off back-to-back championships.
While this current Lakers group is completely different than the above-mentioned cast, they have clearly proven themselves so far. As of when this was written, the Lakers are sitting atop the Western Conference, namely due to the robust efforts from their defense.
Through their first six contests, Los Angeles is allowing 99.3 points a night. They are among a class of just three teams who are giving up less than 100 points per game.
Sunday evening was yet another example of the Lakers’ defense stepping up to the plate. They permitted the San Antonio Spurs to score just 96 points, which is not an easy feat. For those who might have already forgotten, they managed to do this on the road.
LeBron James and Anthony Davis carried the Lakers on offense. James dropped 21 points and collected 13 dimes on the night. AD contributed an efficient 25 points of his own to the cause.
Granted their offensive support should come as no surprise, what is being done on the other end of the hardwood has not gone unnoticed. James looks more active on defense this year than he ever did during his first stint with the purple and gold.
In year one with the Lakers, LeBron seemed to essentially pick his spots with respect to defense. This time around the seasoned veteran has thankfully been more of an asset than a liability. He is not taking a lot of plays off like he previously was.
In terms of Davis, he has unequivocally been the team’s leader on “D.” He has been an absolute monster as far as his rebounding is concerned, not to mention his shot blocking. His athleticism and size are off the charts, and he has made the most of those physical gifts for Los Angeles.
The big man is gobbling up an average of 11.5 boards a night to go along with three blocks. As of when this was written, Davis is leading the league in the latter category.
Let alone Davis, the Lakers also have Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee down low as well. Those two are more than capable of protecting the paint and Howard in particular has demonstrated that up to this juncture.
With all of that in mind, the Lakers’ objective seems to be quite discernible. They are determined to be a defensive-minded team, and the results have typically been indicative of that.
Davis recently spoke about the purple and gold’s defense on Spectrum SportsNet and contended that “D” is the key this season.
Matt Peralta of Lakers Nation transcribed what The Brow said on the subject matter in a recent piece he developed.
"“It’s our mindset. We understand if we play defense we’re very hard to beat. Obviously, we still have a lot to work on offensively, but we try to make sure we strive on defense every game and if we’re able to do that then, we’re a tough team to beat. I think it’s three or four games where we held the opponent under 100 and that’s some great offensive teams.But we try to lay our heads down on defense and if we’re able to do that game in and game out then we wanna be the best defensive team in the league and we’ll be tough to beat.”"
Indeed, the offense has been far from perfect. Outside of LeBron, the Lakers have not had another consistent playmaker. Nevertheless, that problem area will be addressed to some degree whenever floor general Rajon Rondo returns to action.
Moreover, another department the Lakers have struggled in is their bench production. Granted it is fair to expect that Kyle Kuzma will find his jump shot, the team will need another man from their second unit to regularly contribute.
Despite the shortcomings on offense, though, the defense has made up for it for the most part. The Lakers have been a tenacious, no-nonsense group in that realm.
What has encouraging about the defense is that it was a message that was consistently preached going back to training camp. Therefore, the fact that the defensive point of emphasis has carried itself into the season is refreshing.
Any team is going to have its fair share of goals going into the year. However, words are merely words in the grand scheme of things. Ergo, for the Lakers to be backing up all of that preseason talk should be a sign of concern for the rest of the league.
One individual who deserves a sliver of credit for their defensive dominance is skipper Frank Vogel. Going back to his days with the Indiana Pacers, Vogel’s primary concentration has always been about defense.
Those Pacers teams were well-known for never taking a possession off and for being unafraid to get physical. During their first few games, the Lakers have looked like that kind of squad and Vogel is worthy of some praise for drilling that doctrine into the heads of his players.
As Peralta stated, there were sequences in the Spurs game where the Lakers’ “D” thoroughly “suffocated” the opposition. It was beautiful to see given that the Spurs pride themselves on a much higher standard than they were able to show.
In the Western Conference especially, playing airtight defense is a must. The conference is well-known for being deep and this year things are no different.
On that note, if the Lakers want to continue to make noise, the type of defense Davis noted will need to remain the philosophy.
While no one can refute that the season remains young, the ball club has played inspiring defense through seven games. They have been wholeheartedly resilient in this neck of the woods.
This Lakers team has played tremendously better defense than they did last year, namely in the fourth quarter when it matters most. It has been a joy to watch them not fall asleep in crucial moments.
If Los Angeles keeps it up from a defensive perspective, they will certainly be “tough to beat” as Davis said. Tough being an understatement.