The Los Angeles Lakers entered Sunday with a seven-game winning streak, tied with the San Antonio Spurs for the best mark in the NBA. And with the Lakers having a rare three-day rest in between games this week, it may've been tempting to sit back, relax, and get complacent.
But Lakers head coach JJ Redick doesn't operate that way. Redick and his staff used the three-day break to do a deep-dive analysis of LA's season so far. After compiling around 40 points of emphasis (20 for offense, 20 for defense), Redick's analytics team turned the information into a 21-page presentation that the coaches were able to walk the players through on Friday. Redick called it an "audit" of the young season.
JJ Redick and the Lakers staff created a 21-page "audit" of the season for players to learn from
Speaking to the media on Friday, Redick explained the structure of the audit. The offense-based analysis filtered data and statistics through the Lakers' three in-house-established identities: "organized, unselfish, and advantage-based" (in Redick's words). On defense, the info was filtered through the identities, "organized, physical as f***, and relentless."
As expected, the Lakers are one of the best offensive teams in the league in the early going, while their defense is certainly a work in progress. Entering Sunday, LA led the NBA in offensive rating at 122.1. Meanwhile, the Lake Show was 17th in defensive rating (114.1).
A huge weakness for the Lakers defensively is defensive rebounding. According to the NBA analytics site Databallr, the Lakers rank 27th in the NBA in "DRB", which is a metric measuring the amount of defensive rating attributed to finishing possessions with defensive rebounds and limiting second chances.
The team that's currently last in DRB? That would be the Phoenix Suns, whom the Lakers face on Sunday. Thus, it'll be a good starting point for the Lakers to assert themselves dominantly on the defensive glass following Friday's audit presentation.
Lakers have easy upcoming slate of games
The Lakers' schedule features relatively weak competition over the next five games before a blockbuster battle in San Antonio set for November 27th. Leading up to that game, LA will face Phoenix on Sunday, followed by Charlotte, Utah (twice), and Sacramento.
It's important that the Lakers take care of business against their milder foes, given the crowded state of the Western Conference in its upper echelons. It's not crazy to expect a 4-1 stretch over the next five games, which would have the Lakers sitting at 15-3 entering the Spurs game.
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