Coming into the season, Byron Scott preached defense continuously as one thing that he would focus on in regards to this Los Angeles Lakers team. Unfortunately, that has not yet come to fruition as the Lakers have continued to struggle on that end of the floor.
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After another loss in which they gave up more than 100 points — this time to the New Orleans Pelicans — Scott had some harsh words for his team’s performance according to Mark Medina of the LA Daily News:
Byron Scott: "That's been the worst defense I've seen."
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) November 13, 2014
As the team’s ineffectiveness on the defensive end continues, Scott admitted that he doesn’t know if the Lakers can turn things around on TWC SportsNet via Serena Winters:
Byron Scott, is the defense fixable? "I don't know yet." (on TWC)
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) November 13, 2014
The Lakers’ problems on defense are obvious. The team lacks a true rim protector to prevent people from driving the basket continuously and no wing player has emerged as a lockdown defender to corral the league’s best players and force them into tough shots.
The team as a whole has struggled with help defense and the team ranks dead last in points against and field goal percentage against, as well as the third worst mark in three-point percentage against.
The offense seems to be coming around, but the team will continue to come up short as long as their defense is this bad. Scott hangs his hat on defense and clearly, something needs to change for the Lakers.
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