Los Angeles Lakers: 4 Lessons how LeBron and the bench buried Denver

Sure the Los Angeles Lakers have a defensive weakness in Marc Gasol. Here’s another one in Dennis Schroder!

Coming into this game, most readers was worried about how in the world would the Lakers defense survive Nikola Jokic with Marc Gasol being the only center. That answer will be answered later, but let’s focus on another glaring weakness in the Lakers starting lineup. Dennis Schroder. This statement here tells you all you need to know about fans watching a box score instead of the game from the early post.

• Los Angeles Lakers ride LeBron and the bench to win over Denver!

"Schroder’s job is to fly around the wing, use his speed to be pesky, and then Provide last minute help as a stunt or closeout guy. His erratic play is by design…"

Let’s break this statement down a little more closely. Let’s start with the erratic part. What championship team wants an erratic player? Especially on the defensive end? Let’s take a look at the damage of Schroder’s play and how it hurt the Lakers defense in the first half.

Frank Vogel is known as a defensive coach. Phil handy is the best assistant coach in the NBA and please believe Lionel Hollins don’t play games when it comes to defense like this.

Good luck finding any stunts or closing out. He quit.

The Denver guards were killing the Lakers not only knocking down open 3 point shots, but with dribble penetration that was breaking down the interior defense that led to offensive rebounds. Here’s how the Denver guards did in the first half.

• Jamal Murray: 10 points…
• Monte Morris: 9 points…
• Will Barton: 7 points…

Most of the Denver points were off of assists that led to easy baskets. When they missed, the Nuggets got second chance points. (The Lakers were doubled up in offensive boards 16-7!)

All of this adds up to a 12-point deficit into halftime 58-46 while getting whipped on the boards by a 29-16 rebounding margin.

Sure Dennis Schroder finished with 21 points…So? If the Los Angeles Lakers coaching staff do not make adjustments, those three players would have probably scored 21 or more too.

Let’s be clear, Marc Gasol is still a major problem with his rotations and rim protection. It’s just MAGNIFIED by the lack of defensive discipline of Dennis Schroder by allowing dribble penetration so teams can take advantage of it.

Lesson three shows why it is so easy to see Dennis Schroder’s lack of defense. When he was on the bench, the Los Angeles Lakers took over the game and those Denver guards stopped scoring!