Los Angeles Lakers are excelling in these 3 areas so far this season

1. Defense

As the old saying goes, defense wins championships, and the Lakers have been doing their part to establish a culture and identity in that mold.

Through seven games, they’re second in the NBA in defensive rating at 97.9. It’s super hard to do any better than that, especially as the Lakers start playing more great offensive teams in the coming weeks and months.

But when you take a closer look at the different elements of defense, they’re clearly doing well at that end all across the board.

The Lakers rank either high or at the top of the league in these important defensive metrics:

Steals: Fifth at 9.0 per game

Blocks: First at 8.4 per game

Opponents’ points in the paint: Seventh at 42.6 per game

Opponents’ 3-point accuracy: Seventh at 32.1 percent

Opponents’ field-goal percentage: Fifth at 41.7 percent

Points allowed: Fourth at 101.1 per game

All these numbers may fluctuate throughout the season a bit, but they seem sustainable, mainly because they have a coaching staff that not only emphasizes defense first but has the experience to actually translate that ideology into results.

And of course, they still have plenty of room for improvement, not just defensively, but in every other facet of the game.