The Los Angeles Lakers have a brand new head coach and a brand new defensive scheme, and the identical outdated issues with transition protection. Sunday night time, the opposing coach bailed them out.
The Lakers enable 1.2 factors per possession in transition, the third-worst mark within the NBA. Monday, when LeBron James missed a three-pointer with the Lakers main by some extent, Collin Sexton of the Utah Jazz grabbed the rebound and drove down for a go-ahead layup — solely to see it waved off when Jazz coach Will Hardy referred to as a timeout earlier than his shot.
Los Angeles held on for the 105-104 win, however the play was emblematic of the crew’s poor transition protection that is been an issue for the final 4 seasons. The Lakers surrender 26.1 transition points per game, fourth-worst within the NBA.
Final yr they ranked fourth-worst with 24 points per game, in 2022-23, they have been fourth-worst with 23.4 transition points and in 2021-22, they have been the NBA’s second-worst transition protection crew, with 22 points per game.
That abysmal transition protection efficiency spans three head coaches, from Frank Vogel to Darvin Ham to JJ Redick. The widespread thread is the crew’s personnel. LeBron James remains to be a superb offensive participant, however as he will get older, he is much less and fewer inclined to hustle again on protection. And extra prone to jaw with the officers.
In fact, James can be one month away from his fortieth birthday. The a lot youthful Anthony Davis additionally has a behavior of strolling again on protection and groups have exploited this by making an attempt to run in opposition to the Lakers, even off of made baskets.
It is the crew’s largest flaw, significantly as a result of they’ll defend properly within the half courtroom. Davis is a wonderful rim protector, however he has to truly make it right down to the basket to take action. It does assist the Lakers general that the crew shoots 47.9% from the sphere, minimizing the quantity of misses, however they do not significantly get offensive rebounds (twenty sixth in total offensive boards, twenty fifth in offensive rebound share).
It is merely a harmful technique to play. The Lakers are successfully giving up free factors each sport, both because of fatigue or lack of effort.
Perhaps the crew must relaxation its stars and maintain them contemporary. However in addition they want James and Davis to steer by instance. If the superstars do not get again on protection, it is arduous to count on the position gamers to hustle sufficient to cowl for them.
Or count on the opposing coach to save lots of them with an ill-advised timeout.
