With Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and LeBron James leading the way, the Los Angeles Lakers offense is always going to be capable of hanging with any team in the league. The bigger question that would decide whether this team could contend for a championship was if the defense could hold up.
For much of the season, that has tended to not be the case, particularly against top competition and the Lakers have suffered a number of rough losses because of it. But recently that has begun to turn around and they are now coming off back-to-back strong performances against two of the best offenses in the NBA in the New York Knicks and Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Lakers held the Knicks under 100 points and nearly did the same to the Timberwolves if not for letting up in the fourth quarter with the end result well in hand. Head coach JJ Redick spoke on his team’s defense as of late, saying the Lakers have been improving for some time now while being very encouraged by their last two performances.
“I’m encouraged by the defense, particularly,” Redick said after the win over Minnesota. “We’ve been trending in that direction now for 25 games to be above-average. I mean, … we’re not going to be the number one defense in the league. But to be, you know, above average, and to do – have those two performances against those two teams back to back, is really encouraging.”
With an offense that can be as good as the Lakers unit is capable of, they don’t need to be the best defense in the league, just be above average as Redick noted they have been lately. The Lakers held the Knicks to 43% shooting and 24% from 3-point range while holding All-Star Jalen Brunson to just 8-of-19 shooting from the field. They then held the Timberwolves to 46% shooting and 25% from deep while Anthony Edwards shot just 2-of-15.
Marcus Smart has been praised as the tone setter on that end while the likes of Jake LaRavia and Jarred Vanderbilt provide a spark, not to mention Deandre Ayton, when locked in, has been a great deterrent at the rim. But the energy they bring also motivates the stars with Doncic and Reaves giving great effort and sacrificing their bodies on the defense end as well.
Redick has this team on the upswing and they are starting to play their best basketball of the year at the right time.
JJ Redick explains why Lakers have had more success without LeBron James
One thing that has been noticeable is how good the Lakers have played despite LeBron James being out due to injury and JJ Redick broke down why he believes that has been the case.
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