The Los Angeles Lakers were not expected to have a good defense when the season began. Being built around Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and a 41-year-old LeBron James virtually guaranteed that L.A. would not have any sort of elite defense. However, they were particularly bad through the first long stretch of the year.
Through 46 games, the Lakers had a defensive rating of 117.3. That put them at 25th in the NBA, ahead of only lottery-bound teams like the Brooklyn Nets, New Orleans Pelicans, Sacramento Kings, Washington Wizards and Utah Jazz. But in their last 15 games — since Jan. 29 — their defensive rating is 112.0, good enough for 12th in the league.
They are 9-6 in that stretch and have a firmly positive net rating. This included a strong win on Tuesday night over the Pelicans. LeBron spoke about what he liked from the Lakers in the win, focusing solely on the defensive end.
“We got stops,” James said. “They mixed up the defenses a lot, so it confused a little bit offensively. But [we] made some plays, we turned a lot of those stops into fast break opportunities.”
Overall, LeBron echoed the sentiment that the stats are showing, which is that the Lakers defense is improving.
“I think so. I think we’ve made some strides defensively,” he added. “We didn’t play much at all in zone tonight. We started the game out with it, we kind of went away from it. I thought the man-to-man defense was pretty good. Jaxson [Hayes] and Marcus [Smart] were great on that end and then everybody else trickled in as well.”
The sentiment for the Lakers entering the season was that, of course, they were going to be an offensive-minded team. But the consensus was that if they can be at least average defensively, they can be a dangerous team. They’ve been even better than average over the last month-plus, and the results are showing.
If they can continue being a top-10 offense — ninth since Jan. 29 — while being a top-half defense, they have a real chance to make noise in the playoffs, even with the crowded and difficult Western Conference.
LeBron James won’t make decision on future until offseason
What LeBron James is going to do this summer remains one of the most talked-about stories surrounding the Lakers. He’ll be a 41-year-old unrestricted free agent, with his top options seemingly being a return to the Lakers, going home to the Cleveland Cavaliers or retiring from the game.
Reports continue to be that he has no idea what he’s going to do and is going to wait until the offseason to make any sort of decision.
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