The Los Angeles Lakers have been one of the worst defensive teams in the league at the onset of the 2024-25 season. Through 17 games, they rank 27th in the NBA in defensive rating, and are only 0.6 points per 100 possessions away from the bottom-ranked team. They are the only team above .500 in the bottom seven of the league.
This is despite having one of the best defensive players in the league in Anthony Davis. The superstar center has done a remarkable job cleaning up mistakes for L.A. over the past few years, but he has not been able to do so this season. And whether it’s the fault of the scheme or just Father Time, even Davis has been a step slower than usual defensively.
The star center was asked to diagnose the root of the Lakers’ defensive issues, and he had a plethora of reasons as to why they have struggled so much on that end of the court this season, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Just pride. Communication is a big part of it. Miscommunicating, covering for one another, trusting each other. Because we all try to do the right thing but with the lack of communication that goes on, we’re not mind readers so if we’re not talking, we can be thinking we’re going the right thing, but the other four guys or other guy that you’re in the action with might not know what’s going on. So I think if we just pick up our communcation, we’ll be fine on the defensive end.”
Davis said that the entire team, including himself, needs to pick up the slack on that end of the court. Especially so if the Lakers are going to be inconsistent in their offensive success:
“If we’re gonna continue to play how we did in the third quarter on the offensive end then we’re gonna have to be a better defensive team. It’s just that simple. Obviously we want to be able to do both on both ends, but I think at the least we got to be a pretty good defensive team. We’re at the bottom of the pack and we’re not saying ‘Oh man, top five or top three.’ Like, just getting to the middle of the pack can change a lot for us. We just got to take it one game at a time and try to have some pride in ourselves defensively. I can do a better job communicating with our guards in pick-and-roll actions and try to quarterback everything out there. But I think we all just have to do a better job and it starts tomorrow.”
The Lakers defense appears to be the most pressing matter facing the team at their current stage. Their offense has been inconsistent at times but they remain towards the top of the league in efficiency. But no team in the bottom five defensively is going to win a championship or even make a deep playoff run.
Davis and the Lakers must figure out how to gain that trust and fix the communication if they want any chance at competing this season.
LeBron James: Lakers must remain process-oriented
The Lakers have been a team of runs this season. They started 3-0, then went 1-4 on their first road trip. They followed that up with a 6-0 stretch and are now 0-3 in their last three with two blowout defeats.
Lakers star LeBron James has been a constant throughout it all, but L.A. hasn’t been a consistent ballclub to start the season in any way.
Their last two losses have looked particularly bad. The Lakers were crushed in the second half by both the Denver Nuggets and the Phoenix Suns, two other Western Conference contenders.
But James didn’t want to overreact to two losses, saying that it’s all a part of a season-long process for the Lakers.
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