Los Angeles Lakers: 3 lineups that could see high usage in the postseason
By Jason Reed
The Los Angeles Lakers’ main lineup to use against the Los Angeles Clippers:
- PG: Avery Bradley
- SG: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
- SF: Danny Green
- PF: LeBron James
- C: Anthony Davis
This is the 20th most-used lineup by the Los Angeles Lakers, playing a total of 26 minutes together. While this lineup does not have a lot of playing time together in the regular season, I would like to see this lineup used more often against the Los Angeles Clippers as it matches the Lakers up better with what the Clippers have.
The biggest defensive challenge that the Clippers present to the Lakers is that they have two very elite wings that can both score the basketball. This is something the Boston Celtics, who would be a tough NBA Finals matchup, have.
The Lakers need guys out there that can defend both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George but can still offer scoring and that is what we get in this lineup. The team effectively gets Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Danny Green and Avery Bradley to help rotate onto the two guys on the wing, with LeBron James orchestrating the movement.
This is a much better outlook than having LeBron in isolation against Kawhi or George for most of the game. LeBron could absolutely play solid defense, but this is about putting the team in a better spot to succeed.
Whoever is not guarding one of the wings will be on Patrick Beverley with LeBron on someone like Lou Williams, when it is not KCP or Green. This leaves Davis to be the rim protector to slow down a driving Kawhi or Paul George as well as help neutralize Montrezl Harrell.
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The Clippers are not a team with a lot of size and the Lakers would be better off with a defensive-minded lineup like this rather than having Kuzma out there to set up a defensive mismatch.