Lakers hoping offense wins championships

The Los Angeles Lakers held two practices this week to work on their struggling defense, then gave up 78 first-half points to the Utah Jazz. Their offense was good enough to still come away with a 143-135 victory on Thursday.

Luka Doncic had a gaudy stat line of 45 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists in the win, but the Lakers needed every bit of it. Even after taking a commanding 12-point lead in the final quarter, the team had to sweat out an 8-0 run by the young Jazz before locking in the W.

Elite Lakers offense is paired with a bottom-10 defense

It's impressive that the Lakers were able to put up two different 41-points quarters Thursday night. It's less impressive that they gave up a 41-point quarter to the Jazz, who devoted 72% of the minutes in Thursday's loss to players 22 or younger. That might be a tough matchup for a Lakers team featuring 40-year-old LeBron James, but the young Jazz are far from an elite offense.

Coach JJ Redick reportedly challenged Doncic and James to increase their defensive effort this week. The result was a first quarter where the Jazz shot 70% while scoring 41 points, with Doncic playing all but one second of the period. The second quarter wasn't a lot better, with the Jazz shooting 12-for-21 and putting up 37 points, led by Keyonte George scoring 13 of his 34 points.

The Jazz made 49% of their threes in the game. That's unusually good for them, but a common occurrence against this Lakers team that lets opponents shoot 38.5% from deep, second-worst in the NBA. The Lakers don't get many steals or block many shots, making it difficult to put teams away, even with their tremendous scoring punch.

Luka Doncic and LeBron James can outscore teams on their own

Despite their defensive deficiencies, the Doncic-James duo was incredible against Utah. James scored 28 points with 10 assists. Combined, the two Lakers had 24 assists and only three turnovers. Given the Lakers' struggles with transition defense, taking care of the ball the way their superstars did Thursday limits the damage, and Doncic's five steals helped the Lakers win the turnover battle, 13-7.

They put up 143 points without 27.8 PPG scorer Austin Reaves, though Marcus Smart's five three-pointers helped make up for his absence. Smart suggested after the game that the Lakers' elite scoring ability might affect their defensive effort, if only subconsciously, because they know how quickly they can make up deficits.