In what has been a season filled with runs and slides for the Los Angeles Lakers, they are in the midst of peraps their best stretch of team basketball. Despite LeBron James missing his first two games of the season, L.A. is 4-1 in their last five games. And in a remarkable change of pace, the wins have happened on the back of the team’s defense.
The Lakers have the best defense in the NBA over the last five games, with an incredibly elite 99.2 defensive. That includes two hard-fought victories over the Sacramento Kings in which virtually no one — not even LeBron himself — shot efficiently from the field. James hit 21 of his 45 shots combined over the two games.
But that inefficiency hasn’t yet mattered, as something has clicked on the defensive end. LeBron went into what that shift could have been, and he takes it back to a mentality shift when L.A. was arguably the worst defense in the NBA not that long ago, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“We understand that in order for us to compete in every game and win games, we can’t rely on offense all the time. We have to buckle down on defense. I don’t know when that was, maybe six or seven games ago or whatever when our defense was not so good, I think it was that roadtrip where we went to Miami or whatever the case may be, but from that moment, we just started really sharpening our defense. I think our offense is gonna come, we understand that. But you can win games in this league when you’re defending at a high level and we’ve been doing that over this last couple weeks.”
But of course, a mentality shift is not nearly enough to go from a bottom five defense to the best. Something physically has to change on the court, and for James, that involves becoming a more vocal part of the defensive game plan:
“Most important is my voice. I always gotta make sure that my voice is always commanding and calling things out and letting guys know what’s happening behind the defense. Obviously you have the point of attack, the guy guarding the ball, and then nine times out of 10, AD is the anchor. So I just try to guide the rest of the guys behind the back line and let those guys know what’s going on behind them. Just try to be in the right place at the right time and also try to take responsibility with my individual matchups, whoever that may be that night.”
The roadtrip that LeBron is referring to was absolutely a low moment for the Lakers so far this season. They suffered back-to-back horrible blowouts in which it looked like they had completely given up on the season. So for them to turn it around in this way, with their defense, is an extraordinary feat.
Winning games on defense is so much more sustainable than doing so with offense, and that’s exactly why the Lakers knew something had to change.
LeBron James willing to have workload conversations
LeBron James did a little bit of everything in the Lakers two victories over the Kings.
He had missed the Lakers’ previous two games due to left foot soreness. That also coincided with a fortunate schedule break for the Lakers, ultimately giving James nine full days off in between games, allowing for him to help heal his body.
LeBron has said numerous times that as long as he is healthy he prefers to suit up and he recently reiterated that point, though he did add that if there is a long-term benefit for himself and the betterment of the team, he is open to having conversations about limiting his workload.
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