Lakerholics

The Los Angeles Lakers may finally have discovered the winning formula to transform their offensively talented but defensively flawed roster into a team with a juggernaut 3-point offense and aggressive team zone defense.

After losing 3 straight including 2 straight ‘clutch’ losses, the Lakers were playing like the Lakers always had, guilty of not sharing the ball enough, turning it over too much, and taking and making too few 3-point shots. The Lakers 116.0 offensive rating season-to-date was #11, their 116.8 defensive rating #24, and their -0.7 net rating #19. Their 25.2 assists was #21, their 14.8 turnover #19, their 11.7 3PM #23, and their 33.2 3PA #25.

During their last 7 games, the finally healthy Lakers have been playing like the offensive juggernaut everybody expected they would be with Luka, LeBron and elevating their defense by deploying smart zone defenses.
Over the last 7-game stretch, the Lakers’ 121.1 offensive rating was #5, their 107.3 defensive rating #7, and their +13.8 net rating #2. Their 28.3 assists was #6, their 12.3 turnovers #6, their 14.9 3PM #6, their 39.0 3PA #14.

While the sample size is small, the Lakers underwent an astonishing transformation over a 7-game period to make giant leaps from #11 to #5 offensively, from #24 to #7 defensively, and from #19 to #2 in net rating.
The Lakers transformed their offense by increasing assists from 25.2 to 28.3, cutting turnovers from 14.8 to 12.3, raising 3PM’s from 11.7 to 14.9, and upping 3PA’s from 33.2 to 39.0 while deploying smart zone defenses.

The big questions are what’s behind the Lakers’ dramatic turnaround on offense and defense, is this new level of performance sustainable, and what does it say about the Lakers ceilings offensively and defensively.

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TRANSFORMING LAKERS INTO JUGGERNAUT OFFENSE

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Heading into the last month of the regular season, the Lakers essentially have transformed what was a Bottom-10 NBA offense into a 3-ball powered offensive juggernaut that’s now playing like a Top-5 offense in the league.

So what’s behind the Lakers sudden meteoric offensive jump from the middle of the pack to the 5th best offensive rating in the league the last 7 games? The answer is more assists, fewer turnovers, and more threes.
Basically, the Lakers simply transformed their offense into a juggernaut.
In the last 7 games, they created 3.1 more assists, had 2.5 fewer turnovers, took 5.8 more 3-point shots, and made 2.5 more 3-point shots per game.

The result was a 5.1 points per game increase in the Lakers offensive rating for the last 7 games vs. the first 3/4 of the season primarily due to taking 5.8 more 3-point shots and making 3.2 more 3-point shots than earlier in year. Behind the scenes, two things happened to open the door for the Lakers to transform their offense into a juggernaut. The first was the trade for Luke Kennard and the second was the new stable starting lineup and rotation.

JJ Redick has to given credit for doing a fabulous job keeping this team motivated and together, especially since many players are on expiring contracts and unsure of what their future will be in purple and gold.
Redick has smartly focused on playing two starter-quality 5-man lineups with strong positive analytics results. The first is a Doncic and Reaves offense-first lineup and the second is James alone in a defensive lineup.

There’s no question the Lakers have transformed their offense into a juggernaut the last 7 games. If Redick can keep the Lakers playing offense anywhere close to the level of the last 7 games, LA will compete for a ring.

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TRANSFORMING LAKERS WITH SMART ZONE DEFENSE

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Finally healthy for the last quarter of the regular season, the Lakers have transformed their defense from a Bottom-10 defense to a Top-5 defense by integrating a smart zone defense with their other team defensive tools.

So what’s behind the Lakers sudden and surprising Top-5 team defense? After a frustrating first 3/4 of the season, JJ Redick has finally figured out how to get his talented offense-first roster to play inspired defense.
Redick’s solution was to add a 2/3 smart zone to their defensive toolkit to provide a different look, disrupt opponent offensive rhythm, eat up clock early in possessions, and simplify roles for weak individual defenders.

The gratifying result has been a 9.5 points per game reduction in their defensive rating, going from a 116.8 defensive rating (#24) for the first 3/4 of the season to a 107.3 defensive rating (#6) for the last 7 games.
While the Lakers must prove over the 17 games left in the regular season that their enhanced defense is real and sustainable, both the eye test and the analytics numbers confirm that LA’s defensive improvement is for real.

Part of why the Lakers players are playing better defense are the savvy moves Redick made to share the ball more and get everybody involved on offense so they feel like they’re again playing for their Lakers future.
While everybody expected Redick to be an excellent offensive head coach, nobody really expected him to be able to get the Lakers players defending with multiple efforts at the elite level they have performed last 7 games.

There’s no question that using an innovative new smart zone defense 20% of the time has transformed the Lakers’ defense into a Top-5 unit that enables them to better protect the rim and defend the point-of-attack.

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TRANSFORMING LAKERS INTO CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM

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Offense and defense in basketball are synergistically connected. Good offense leads to good defense and good defense leads to good offense while bad offense leads to bad defense and bad defense leads to bad offense.

Right now, the Lakers are reaping the synergistic benefit of transforming their offense into a juggernaut and their defense into a smart zone defense. Their good offense and defense are synergistically improving each other.
Eliminating bad offense from turnovers and low percentage shots clearly helps the Lakers defense just as eliminating bad defense that allows fast breaks or offensive rebounds can make their offense be more efficient.

Right now, much of the Lakers’ big improvement in offense and defense has been due to Redick and his staff finding the right combinations of personnel with enough offense and defense to win minutes on the court.
There are still challenges with what to do with LeBron when all three play together, how to better protect the rim without any elite shot blockers on the roster, and how to have better point-of-attack defense playing man.

Functionally, Redick has opted for an offense-first starting lineup led by Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves and a second defense-first starter-quality lineup led by LeBron James with several of the team’s best defenders.
Two defenders who have been crucial is getting the Lakers new smart zone defense to provide better point-of-attack defense and rim protection are Jarred Vanderbilt and Jaxson Hayes, who have ignited the zone defense.

While the Lakers still have a ‘flawed’ roster, Redick and his coaching staff have done a fantastick job transforming their offense into a juggernaut and their defense into a Top-5 unit boasting an innovative smart zone defense.

Don’t look now but the Los Angeles Lakers have been quietly transforming what has been one of the league’s worst 3-point shooting teams this season into a legitimate top-5 3-point shooting modern offensive juggernaut.

The Lakers 110–97 win over the favored Knicks was their 5th in 6 games and showcased how their new high-volume, high percentage 3-point attack has transformed their old-school offense into a modern 3-ball juggernaut. The Lakers made 15 of 44 threes against the Knicks for just 34% in the win while their aggressive defense held New York to just 8 of 34 threes for 24%. The Lakers outscored the Knicks from deep by 7 threes for 21 points.

In the last 6 games, the Lakers shooting more threes has transformed their usual pick-and-roll attack into a top-5 offensive juggernaut with a 4th best 15.5 makes per game, a 13th best 38.3 takes per game, for a 2nd best 40.6%. Before those 6 games, the Lakers were essentially a bottom-10 3-point shooting team for the first 75% of the season, posting a 23rd best 11.7 makes per game, a 25th best 33.2 takes per game, for a 19th best 35.2%.

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So what’s behind the Lakers’ sudden jump in 3-point shots with 20 games left in the season? Was this a specific strategic move to modernize the Lakers’ old school offense or did their 3-point shots suddenly start falling?
While the Lakers lack the elite volume 3-point shooters to sustain this strategy for a full season, they could easily pull it off for a 20-game stretch run, especially if they can convert Luke Kennard into a volume shooter.

While the Lakers wrote off this season as a ‘gap’ year, JJ Redick is making a smart late season gamble that taking and making a lot more threes is their best shot at finishing the season strong and going deep into the playoffs.

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HOW LAKERS ARE MAKING & TAKING MORE THREES?

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During the last 6 games, the Lakers had 6 players who took over 4.3 threes per game, made over 1.8 threes per game, and shot over 37.9% from deep. Those 6 players averaged 35.1 takes and 15.3 makes per game for 43.6%.

The elite high volume, high percentage 3-point shooting of those 6 players has transformed the Lakers’ offense into a 3-ball juggernaut and energized everyone on the team to greatly ramp up their defensive effort and hustle. Redick has always believed that moving and sharing the ball on offense would synergistically create more movement and aggression on defense. Players need touches and shots on offense to be at their best defensively.

The outstanding results from this latest 6-game stretch is a 5–1 Lakers record with the league’s 6th best offensive rating of 120.3 and league’s 5th best defensive rating of 106.8 for the league’s 5th best net rating of +13.4.
In contrast, right before their current 5–1 stretch, the Lakers finished a 6-game stretch where they went 2–4 with the 17th best offensive rating of 112.5, 26th best defensive rating of 118.4, and 22nd best net rating of -5.8.

The difference between the two 6-game streaks is the Lakers increased their 3-point attempts from under 30 to almost 40 during the most recent 6-game stretch, generating an additional 2.4 threes and 7.1 points per game.
While the Lakers still face a gauntlet of 4 ‘must win’ games vs. playoff quality teams over the next 5 games, the big win over the Knicks gave the Lakers confidence to keep playing like the juggernaut they’ve become.

The Lakers are on a mission to win their next 5 games and stretch their current 2-game winning streak into a killer 7-game winning streak while jumping up the standings from their current #5 seed to the #3 seed.

If the Los Angeles Lakers want to hold onto the #6 seed in the West, they need to realize they cannot trust Deandre Ayton and the time has come to bench him and welcome a Jaxson Hayes and Maxi Kleber center rotation.

Frankly, the skillsets of Jaxson Hayes and Maxi Kleber are both better fits for what the Lakers need from the center position than Deandre Ayton, who’s become frustrated and disenchanted with his role on the Lakers.
Deandre Ayton’s skillset was never a great fit for the Lakers, who need an elite two-way center who can protect the rim and guard in space on defense and be a 3-point floor spacer and athletic vertical lob threat on offense.

A diverse and talented center rotation of Hayes and Kleber gives the Lakers everything they need to compete for a championship: rim protection and switchability on defense and vertical lob threat and spacing on offense.
Next summer, the Lakers will likely pursue a modern starting center who can do everything at both ends of the court but for the rest of this season and the playoffs, the time has come for a Hayes and Kleber center rotation.

Between Kleber’s back and Ayton’s knee, the Lakers could be down to justS Hayes starting and James as his backup tonight against the Pacers at home. I’d love the Lakers to play Jaxson Hayes and Maxi Kleber at center tonight.
To be honest, Jaxson has been outplaying Ayton by a wide margin, posting a team best +112 plus/minus since the start of the new year vs. Ayton’s team worst -62 plus/minus. Last night’s game was likely Ayton’s last as a starter.

So let’s take a deeper dive into what Jaxson Hayes starting at center and Maxi Kleber backing him up could mean for the Lakers’ starting lineup and 9 or 10-man rotation their chances of holding onto the #6 seed in the west.

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JAXSON HAYES AS STARTING CENTER

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The 5-player Lakers’ lineup of Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, Marcus Smart, LeBron James, and Jaxson Hayes has only played 21 minutes in 5 games but has an excellent 122.9 offensive, elite 102.2 defensive, and +20.7 net rating.

With just 20 games remaining, the Lakers cannot afford to continue to trust Deandre Ayton. If they want to hold onto th3 #6 seed in the West, they need to put their 5 best players on the court, which means Hayes over Ayton. The Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, Marcus Smart, LeBron James, and Jaxson Hayes starting lineup would be the first time this season that the Lakers started the 5 players on their roster with the highest personal plus/minus.

Ayton averaged 27 mpg while Hayes averaged only 17 for a total of 45 mpg. Since neither Hayes nor Kleber has recently averaged 20 minutes per game, the duo will likely each play around 20 mpg with small ball getting 8 mpg.
In his 27 mpg, Ayton has averaged 12.6 points, 8.2 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.9 blocks, and 0.6 steals. In their 28.5 combined mpg, Hayes and Kleber have averaged 9.2 points, 6.0 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.9 blocks, and 0.8 steals.

Despite the redundancy and inefficiency of playing Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves together, Coach Redick and the Lakers need the to find the right two starters to unlock the juggernaut in their Big Three. Marcus Smart has been everything the Lakers could have hoped for and is replicating his Celtics’ DPOY performance while Jaxson Hayes has become the perfect athletic vertical lob threat Luka Doncic desperately needs.

Replacing Ayton with Hayes should make the Lakers’ starting lineup better and more consistent on offense and defense and provide two gritty players who thrive on doing the tough physical dirty work makes teams winners.

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MAXI KLEBER AS BACKUP CENTER

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Over the last 15 games, Maxi Kleber has produced the 6th best plus/minus on the team and the highest plus/minus among bench players. While he’s missed the last 2 games, Maxi is probably the healthiest he’s been in years.

The Laker’ primary backups include Luke Kennard at shooting guard, Jake LaRavia at small forward, Rui Hachimura at power forward, and Maxi Kleber at center. Right now, Luka or Austin would be backup point guard.
Redick is likely to go with a 9-man rotation at this point and cover the backup point guard minutes with one of Luka, LeBron, or Austin. That means Deandre Ayton and Jarred Vanderbilt would be out of the rotation.

Maxi Kleber has been a impressive surprise who has made several game winning plays at center, including blocks, steals, dunks off pick-and-rolls. His history and rapport having played with Luka has been a huge plus.
Maxi Kleber is actually a better fit for what the Lakers need than Deandre Ayton. Maxi brings positional size and physicality, vet smarts and savvy, ability to stretch the court, and experience playing with Luka Doncic.

While Maxi’s only shooting 27.3% from deep right now, he’s a career 35.3% 3-point shooter and will be expected to give the Lakers the ability to play the 5-out sets to create maximum spacing for Luka, LeBron, and Austin.
The Lakers have been looking for points off the bench all season long. They may finally see some positive results as their bench now includes a pair of top-10 3-point percentage shooters like Luke Kennard and Rui Hachimura.

If he can stay healthy, Maxi Kleber could be the modern shot blocking backup stretch center the Lakers desperately need to hang onto the #6 seed in the West with just 20 games remaining in the 2025–26 regular season.

After their recent 3-game losing streak that included losing two straight ‘clutch’ games, the Lakers made an out-of-the-box decision that the fastest and easiest way to improve their defense was to improve their offense.

Offense and defense are synergistically connected and improving one often has a positive impact on the other. Reducing turnovers and taking higher percentage shots on offense always positively impacts defense. Smart teams also know players who get touches and shots on offense play better and harder on defense. NBA play is a continuous flow that requires players to seamlessly switch between offense and defense on the fly.

Heading into the regular season stretch and playoffs, the Lakers also wanted to modernize their offense, improve floor spacing, share the ball more, improve ball security, and take and make a lot more threes.
While the Lakers will have to wait until next summer to revamp their roster, they do want to do whatever they can the rest of the season and playoffs to see if they can transform their team into a 3-ball juggernaut.

The Lakers’ game plan focuses on running plays and sets designed to accomplish four specific objectives: increase assists, reduce turnovers, increase 3-point shots attempted, and increase 3-point shots made.
Strategically, the Lakers’ goal is to increase team assists to 30.0 per game, reduce turnovers to fewer than 10.0 per game, increase 3-point shots taken to 40.0 per game, and increase 3-point shots made to 15.0 per game.

Let’s take a deep dive into how the Lakers performed against their four targeted offensive statistics during their 3-game win streak and whether their play is sustainable as the schedule and competition gets tougher.

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WHAT WORKED AND WHAT DIDN’T?

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During the 3-game win streak, the Lakers proved they could improve their defense by transforming their offense into a juggernaut with a 121.9 offensive rating (#3), 102.0 defensive rating (#5), and +19.9 net rating (#3).

While the sample size is small and the competition soft, the good news was the Lakers easily won all three games and proved their plan to improve their defense by transforming their offense into a juggernaut could work.
During the streak, the Lakers averaged 30.7 assists per game vs. a target of 30.0, 16.0 made threes per game vs. a target of 15.0, 39.0 attempted threes per game vs. a target of 40.0, and 14.0 turnovers vs. a target of 10.0.

There’s no question the Lakers had a successful launch of their new 3-point powered modern offense the last 3 games. The only disappointments were the 22.0 turnovers and the poor 3-point shooting percentage vs. Pelicans.
Tonight’s matchup vs. the Nuggets should give the Lakers a more realistic opponent to test for their new offensive approach. Besides missing Gordon, Braun, and Watson, the Nuggets rank 19th in opponent made threes.

Despite the injuries and their own struggles, the Nuggets are favored by 4 to 5 points to beat the Lakers at home tonight. Earlier in the season, the Lakers sans Reaves was able to beat the Nuggets without Jokic 115–107.
In that game, the Lakers shot 40% from deep but only attempted 25 shots while the Nuggets shot 41% from deep on a volume of 37 attempted threes.
Lakers still won game but lost the 3-point differential by 15 points.

The Lakers need to continue working to beat their target goals of more than 30 assists, less than 10 turnovers, more than 40 attempted threes and 15 made threes. LA can take down Denver tonight by beating all 4 target goals.

After 3 straight heart-breaking losses, the Lakers may have found how to transform their Big Three starting lineup from a struggling fivesome that’s losing the minutes it’s on the court into a legitimate offensive juggernaut.

While the sample size is 2 just games against the undermanned Warriors and Kings, JJ Redick and the Lakers made a concerted effort the last 2 games to surround their Big Three with floor spacers and shot makers. The result was a road thrashing of the Warriors sans Curry 129–101 on Saturday and a home drubbing of the hapless Kings 128–104 on Sunday for a 2-game 129.8 offensive (#2), 104.1 defensive (#8), and +25.7 net rating (#4).

Before this weekend, LA’s Big Three had only played together for 238 minutes in 14 games posting a mediocre 109.6 offensive, 114.5 defensive, and -4.0 net rating. While sample size was small, the results were poor.
This weekend, that same lineup had a 121.7 offensive (#4), 82.9 defensive (#6), and +38.9 net rating (#4) and were #1 in FGA and #2 in FG%, #4 in 3PM and #1 in 3P%, #4 in assists, #5 in blocks, and #1 in fewest turnovers.

That’s a winning formula for the Lakers. Better floor spacing, playmaking, and shotmaking are the keys to unlocking the offensive juggernaut upside of the Lakers’ Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves Big Three.
We should also see better lineup stability as JJ has now settled on an offense-first starting lineup of Doncic, Reaves, Smart, James, and Ayton backed by a bench of Kennard, LaRavia, Hachimura, Kleber, and Hayes.

With their major rebuild around Luka postponed until next summer, the Lakers are betting their best opportunity to compete for championship this year is to double down on transforming their Big Three into a juggernaut.

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BEST WAY TO FIX LAKERS’ DEFENSE IS TO FIX OFFENSE!

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Facing a total roster overhaul and rebuild next summer, Redick obviously decided the fastest and easiest way to help the Lakers’ bottom-5 defense would be to turn his top-10 offense into an legitimate offensive juggernaut.

Unlike baseball where players take turns playing offense and defense or football where offense and defense use totally different lineups, offense and defense in basketball are intrinsically and synergistically connected.
In basketball, how a team plays on offense often determines how they play on defense. Live ball turnovers, bad shot selection, poor ball movement, not getting touches are all offensive failures that hurt the team’s defense.

Because offense and defense play continuously in basketball, offensive mistakes like turning the ball over or missing layups often lead to fast break opportunities that negatively impact critical team defensive stats.
The best way to fix the Lakers’ defense is to fix their offense by increasing assists to 30 per game, reducing turnovers to under 10 per game, and by boosting 3-point attempts to 40 per game and makes to 15 per game.

With their extreme roster makeover postponed to next summer and Luka Doncic the only player guaranteed to to be part of the team going forward, the Lakers’ morale is struggling as half the team are on expiring contracts.
JJ Redick knows that most that players always play better defense when they’re getting touches and shots and are involved offensively. That’s why the Lakers chose to improve their defense by improving their offense.

While they will need better defenders to totally turn around their defense, the quickest and easiest way for the Lakers to fix their broken defense is to fix the specific offensive issues that negatively impact the team’s defense.

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TRANSFORMING LAKERS INTO 3-POINT JUGGERNAUT

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The last 2 games, we finally saw what the Lakers’ Big Three starters could do with better spacing, playmaking, and shotmaking as they dominated the 3-point battle with 18.5 made threes out of 40.0 attempted threes per game.

Before the weekend, the Lakers played 58 games during which they made 679 threes for 2,037 points and allowed 777 threes for 2,331 points. At that point, the Lakers had allowed 294 more points or -5.1 points per game.
During 2 games with better spacing, playmaking, and shotmaking, the Lakers made 37 out of 80 attempts from deep for a 3P% of 46.3% while defensively allowing just 18 out of 70 opponent threes for a 3P% of 25.7%.

While the Lakers can’t change their roster, one thing they can change is how they play. The Lakers need to modernize their offense and start calling plays and running sets designed to take 40 and make 15 threes per game.
Flipping their 3-point differential is the biggest way the Lakers can fix their offense. They’re currently taking 33.5 threes per game and making 11.9 for 35.7%. If they could take 40 and make 15 threes per game, they’d be top-5.

Redick also started converting lethal Luke Kennard into a high volume 3-point shooter by playing him with Luka, LeBron, and Austin. This weekend Luke averaged 13.5 points and 3.5 made threes in 26.4 minutes per game.
Another player who had a great weekend and gave Vanderbilt’s 2 DNP’s was stretch center Maxi Kleber. While he didn’t take a three, Maxi averaged 5.0 points, 4.0 boards, 0.5 assist, 0.5 steal, 2.0 blocks in 13.1 minutes per game.

To become a juggernaut, the Lakers must call plays and run sets to create 6.5 more 3-point takes per game and 3.1 more 3-point makes per game. Doing that would flip the Lakers’ 3-point differential from -5.1 to +9.8.