Defense wins championships. It is an old cliché that everyone and their mother have probably heard at some point of their lives. It can certainly get annoying listening to that sentiment over and over again. However, there is an inkling of truth within every saying of that nature.
When looking at the last 10 teams to win the NBA championship, defense has certainly mattered. Eight of those squads entered the NBA Playoffs possessing at least a top 10 defensive rating in the league.
The two that did not were the Denver Nuggets (2023) and Golden State Warriors (2018). The key thing with both of those teams is that they turned it on come playoff time. The Nuggets jumped from ranking 15th in the regular season to fourth in the NBA Playoffs. The Warriors may have been saving their efforts for the postseason in 2018, because they took the leap from the 11th defensive rating in the NBA to the top ranking once their team started playing elimination games.
At first, any Lakers fan would be forgiven for thinking that puts this year's team in a troubling position. However, this recent stretch of success has actually catapulted Los Angeles pretty close to fitting that description in 2024-25.
The Lakers defense has quietly been dominant of late
It is important to note that leaning into playing tough defense and giving the needed effort was a big part of the Lakers' first championship of the LeBron James era. When the franchise won the Larry O'Brien Trophy in the NBA Bubble back in 2020, the Lakers had a top three defensive rating in the regular season and mostly maintained that for the playoffs, slipping slightly to sixth.
Considering some of the less successful stretches of the 2024-25 NBA season for the Lakers, there plenty of points when one would have been forgiven for thinking the team was in the bottom half of the league when it comes to their defensive rating. That is no longer the case.
The Lakers have climbed all the way up to 13th in this key category after the success of their recent run. Los Angeles has turned the corner when it comes to this year's campaign.
In the last 15 games, the Lakers are tied with the Boston Celtics and the Oklahoma City Thunder for the best record in the league (12-3) during that span. However, they are in sole ownership of the best defensive rating over those 15 contests.
The Lakers have posted an impressive 106.4 in this crucial metric, according to NBA.com. Los Angeles has also dramatically improved in another key category that was previously plaguing them throughout the year. They have been top three in the league when it comes to opponent points in the paint, with 43.1 allowed per game.
It almost feels strange that a lot of this success has happened without Anthony Davis, who was thought to be their defensive anchor. Despite that, if the Lakers want to position themselves to follow the pattern of previous champions, they will need to continue following the model they have created for themselves during this recent run of extraordinary success.