The defense of the Los Angeles Lakers has been up-and-down this season to say the least, and more often than not it has been on the lower end of that spectrum. Head coach JJ Redick has tried to implement different schemes and strategies, but it hasn’t mattered as the Lakers’ miscommunications have led to wide open looks for the opposition.
With some days off and the opportunity to have some real practice time, there is hope that the Lakers will be able to tweak some things and stabilize their defense ahead of Friday night’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The last time these two teams met, the Lakers were embarrassed in a 29-point loss. Redick looked back at that loss and what went wrong, noting the importance of communication regardless of their scheme.
“Minnesota game, we were in a 1-5 ‘Red’ to start, did not execute our switches, were not physical, did not communicate,” Redick said after Lakers’ practice on Wednesday. “Communication was a big issue in Miami as well, no matter what we tried with matchups. Again, you can’t play basketball and not talk. So in terms of technique and schemes, if you don’t talk, you’re dead.
“So in terms of like tweaking stuff, we’ve done it in coverage, we’ve done it with 1-5 and we’ve done it being physical and we’ve done it talking. That’s what we have to do and we can make adjustments on that. If you’re not talking and you’re not competing, you can’t really make adjustments.”
In their win against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Lakers went away from switching everything and instead had Anthony Davis in more drop coverage. Redick explained the thinking that went into that decision as well.
“For 90% of the season, five in coverage has been our base defense,” Redick noted. “So I don’t think it was like an adjustment or anything, it was just the 1-5 ‘Reds’ worked for a couple of games, we had some major slippage last week and just felt like against that team, Ayton, their offensive rebounding, wanted to keep [Davis] close to the basket.”
Different opponents call for different strategies, but regardless of who the Lakers are facing they must play with high energy and communicate in order for their defense to succeed.
Lakers’ LeBron James unlikely to play vs. Timberwolves
Head coach JJ Redick and the Lakers will have to figure out their best defensive strategy without LeBron James as the superstar is unlikely to play against the Timberwolves on Friday night.
James sat out the Lakers’ last game and was not at practice on Wednesday due to personal reasons. The next chance for LeBron to suit up would be Sunday when the Lakers face the Memphis Grizzlies, which would give him eight days off to reset and charge up his batteries.
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