Lakers' defensive woes on full display in loss to Suns

The Lakers' defensive woes have been apparent all season and reached a fever pitch during Tuesday night's 127-100 loss to the Suns.

JJ Redick's team was outscored 36-18 in a critical part of the third quarter when Lakers defenders were caught napping in rotations. Devin Booker capitalized on the lack of resistance to make a series of shots —both in transition and the halfcourt — that were completely uncontested. There was one specific make at the 5:38 mark when he came off a screen and drained an uncontested midrange shot to put Phoenix up 83-72. Even worse, Jusuf Nurkic got a freeway to the rim leading to him making three consecutive layups between the 9:42 and 8:21 marks.

The Lakers' defensive gaffes infuriated Redick to the point where he called three full timeouts within the final five minutes of the third. But he couldn't stop the bleeding. 

After the game, Redick admitted that he may need to alter some defensive strategies, but there wasn't an easy-fix solution.

"We have to look at some things defensively, especially against good offensive teams," Redick said. "...They kinda got whatever they wanted. Their main players got to their spots and hit tough twos, which they do, and still took 42 threes."

Redick conceded that some of the Lakers' defensive issues could be "personnel-based" but he still expects his players to put up a better fight and take pride in their defense.

"We don't have a ton of guys who can go pick up full court, but teams are trying to disrupt what we do, just like we're trying to disrupt what either teams are doing. ...Sometimes, against a team like this, against a player like [Nikola] Jokic, you can game plan all you want, but great players are going to be great."  

The Lakers are ranked No. 27 in defensive rating (118.2), No. 27 in paint points allowed (54.1 per game) and No. 29 in fast-break points allowed (19.2 per game). Another telling marker of their woeful defense is their No. 28 ranking in opponent assists (28.9 per game), which suggests teams have little trouble exploiting holes in their defense. 

In fairness to the Lakers, they are missing the services of Jarred Vanderbilt, a key part of the team that made the conference finals in 2023. However, it's unreasonable to expect one player, albeit an adept wing defender, to turn around the fortunes of a broken defense.