When the Los Angeles Lakers won their Championship in 2020, defense was their main focus. With Lebron James, Anthony Davis, and a slew of talented defenders behind them, the Purple and Gold cemented themselves on that end of the floor, becoming a dominant force in the league at the time.
Many months have passed since then, but if the Lakers want to win another title, they're going to have to re-discover that defensive edge.
Unfortunately, the LeBron-led team hasn't looked great on that end so far, and there is a lot of skepticism that they have enough to make a deep run.
According to NBA analyst Ric Bucher, the evidence thus far has shown that this Lakers squad just doesn't have it.
“The Lakers can’t [defend],” he said on 'On the Ball.' “Let’s just look across the board. After Anthony Davis there isn’t a quality defender on the team, particularly on the perimeter.
Russ Westbrook – subpar defender. Rajon Rondo – now is subpar defender. Carmelo Anthony – subpar defender. DeAndre Jordan – subpar defender, otherwise he’d still be in Brooklyn. Kent Bazemore average defender. Malik Monk – at best average defender.
Avery Bradley made his name as a defender but at this point that was then and this is now. Austin Reaves – seriously subpar defender. I don’t know if Dwight Howard can still defend. But when there’s now resistance on the perimeter and he’s approaching his 36th birthday, he assuredly can’t move well enough to cover up the deluge of wings and point guard that are running rampant in the paint.”
The Lakers are 2-3 through their first five games and while they have put on good stretches of play on both ends of the floor, they haven't been able to stay consistent -- which could be a symptom of their age.
“Now at times the Lakers are not bad on their initial effort. But there is rarely a second or a third which is what you’d expect when you have a group of mid-thirties-somethings on the floor. At some point a pair of those old legs, and it just takes one, is going to be slow to rotate or to recover.
The compensation is to not press up in order to avoid getting beat and needing help. Take a screenshot when the Lakers are defending on the perimeter. Against the Oklahoma City just about every one of them was inside the arc. Even the guy on the ball.
In their worst game so far, the Lakers blew a 26-point lead to the Thunder (widely considered to be the worst team in basketball). They gave up 123 points by the final buzzer.
“The Thunder came into the game as the second-worst three-point shooting team in the league. But give almost every player time to set their feet and a clear look at the rim and they’re capable of knocking down three which is why the Thunder shot 40% against the Lakers from long distance. Should it really be a surprise that after coming into the game averaging 94 points the Thunder scored 123 against the Lakers, 99 in the last three quarters?”
The 2020-21 campaign is still so young, so it's not wise to count the Lakers out based on the small sample size we've seen so far.
But if they don't get their act together soon, they could be playing catchup for the rest of the season.
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