2. The Los Angeles Lakers are rebounding below expectations
This is not to say that the Los Angeles Lakers are a bad rebounding team, because they are not. In fact, this is saying the opposite. The Lakers are still rebounding the ball fairly well this season but they proved last season that they can rebound the ball better than they are.
Granted, this is a new-look team and the Lakers are missing some of their better rebounders. JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard are no longer on the team but they were replaced by players that could absolutely give the same rebounding production in Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell.
The rebounding numbers are still pretty solid this season. The Lakers rank fourth in total rebounds per game at 47.6 while allowing just 41.8 rebounds per game, also the fourth-most.
The Lakers have taken a small step back when it comes to offensive rebounds, though. The Lakers averaged 10.7 offensive rebounds per game, the seventh-most in the league, and are currently averaging 9.9 offensive rebounds per game, the 17th-most.
By season’s end, I would bet that the Lakers are averaging closer to 11 offensive rebounds per game than 10 rebounds per game.
It is not a huge difference, but the Lakers were 1.5% better in getting offensive rebounds last season, which can be the difference in some of these close games. Over the course of an entire season, these numbers do add up as well.
The Los Angeles Lakers will start swinging back towards the mean and will be rebounding the ball even better than they have been thus far.