The Los Angeles Lakers are on another winning streak thanks to their defense coming back to life on Sunday night against the Dallas Mavericks.
The Los Angeles Lakers haven’t been playing their best basketball of late. They faced their first adversity of the season last week, going on a four-game losing streak.
Injuries played a part in the four losses, as LeBron James and Anthony Davis each missed a game and played hampered in others. However, the biggest reason for the losing streak was that they were not playing up to par defensively.
During their incredible 24-3 start to the season, the Lakers were locking down defensively While they were feeling things out and learning Frank Vogel’s system offensively, they relied on their defense to help them win games. While that defense hasn’t consistently been on display recently, it came out in full force against the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday evening.
Tonight was the third matchup of the season between the two teams. In the first two games, Dallas scored 110 and 114 points. Tonight, they held Dallas to only 95.
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Dallas was unable to get going at any point offensively. They shot 36 percent overall from the field and 30.2 percent from the 3-point line, making only 13-of-43 of their attempts. The Lakers deserve a lot of credit for the work they did on Dallas’ top two players, Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis.
Doncic, who has been dominating the league this season and was averaging a triple-double against the Lakers this season, was held to 5-of-14 from the field and 0-of-6 from distance. He was also forced into six turnovers.
The only play Doncic found any real success tonight offensively was at the foul line, where he made all nine of his attempts and finished with 15 points. He added seven assists, four rebounds and two steals.
Porzings didn’t have much of an impact, either. He shot 4-of-10 from the field, going 3-of-7 from distance for 11 points. He added seven rebounds but was quiet, for the most part, against the Lakers’ frontline.
Getting back to basics defensively will help get the Lakers back on track. Getting healthy will be the biggest help, but as long as they play defense at a high level, they will have a chance to win every time they step on the court.