Los Angeles Lakers: Can the team maintain this hot start?

As always, expectations need to be tempered, but there is reason to believe that the Los Angeles Lakers early success is sustainable as we head deeper into the regular season.

With seven games in the books, the Los Angeles Lakers are now 6-1, with the only loss coming from opening night against the Clippers. Since then, the team has ripped off six straight wins, the most recent being a come from behind victory on the road against the Bulls.

There has been a lot of questions as to whether or not this is simply a hot start, and the team will come back down to earth, or if this Lakers squad is the real deal, and these six straight wins are proof of that.

The biggest takeaway from these last six games has no doubt been the team’s defense, which has kept them within striking distance when going down early, and able to hold onto leads late in the game. Here are some metrics to sink your teeth into per CleaningtheGlass.

• 4th in points allowed per 100 possessions at 99.6.
• 3rd in opponent eFG% at 48.1%.
• 2nd in turnover percentage at 18.2%.

Beyond that, the team is defending extremely well from just about every part of the floor. Here are the numbers in terms of how well opponents are shooting at each spot.

• 4th in shots at the rim at 58.2%.
• 2nd in shots from short mid-range at 33.1%.
• 7th in shots from three at 32.7%.

There is reason to believe that the Lakers can maintain this level of defense throughout the regular season as they have elite perimeter defenders in Danny Green, and Avery Bradley, elite rim protection in Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard, and JaVale McGee, and they have a proven defensive minded coach in Frank Vogel to put all the pieces together.

Offensively is where it can get a little tricky, as the team is fairly average on that end of the floor, ranking 16th in points per 100 possessions, and 16th in eFG%. This is due in part to the team shooting a blistering 72.9% at the rim, good for first in the league, but being in the bottom third everywhere else on the floor.

Now it’s true that shots at the rim are easily the shots you want to be taking and making, but you need to have a reliable shooting threat to keep defenses from packing the paint and making life difficult for your big men.

Some of this has to do with Kyle Kuzma starting out slow after coming back from a stress reaction in his foot that kept him out for all of training camp. But LeBron James and Anthony Davis have both been cold from three to start the season, averaging 29% and 26% respectively. Danny Green has so far been the team’s only reliable shooter, averaging 47% from three, and an even crazier 56% on threes above the break, but he can’t be relied upon to carry the team’s offense.

However, even with the shooting woes, they still have some reliable fall-back options when shots aren’t falling, namely the LeBron/Davis pick and roll, and post ups for either one on the left block that has so far been nearly unstoppable.

But the most important thing is that this team is already defending at a high level, which is the main factor in this hot start, and that’s generally the more difficult part when it comes to a brand new team such as this.

There’s no reason to think that the offense won’t get up to speed over the course of the season as guys get more used to each other, injured players like Rajon Rondo, and Kyle Kuzma get back into game shape, and the LeBron James/Anthony Davis connection shifts into another gear.