Lakerholics

Fresh off a comfortable statement win over the Milwaukee Bucks last Thursday night, the Los Angeles Lakers look to extend their 8-game road winning streak to 9 games in tonight’s rematch with the Chicago Bulls.

Lakers 9.5 point favorites. LakerTom’s prediction: Lakers 117–96

The key to the game will be the champion Lakers playing up to their level rather than down to their opponent’s level. Hopefully, the Lakers will remember how they almost lost their first game against the Bulls in LA. Chicago not only won the points-in-the-paint battle 62–42 but also beat the Lakers in fast break points 13–7, two areas the Lakers failed to win against the Bucks despite winning the game last Thursday in Milwaukee.

Lakers Record: 12–4 overall, 8–0 on the road, won 6 of last 7 game.
Bulls Record: 7–8 overall, 2–3 at home, won 3 straight games.

Lakers #1 Net Rating, #1 Defensive Rating, #4 Offensive Rating.
Bulls #22 Net Rating, #27 Defensive Rating, #11 Offensive Rating.

Previous Matchups: Lakers beat Bulls 115-113 on Jan 8th in Los Angeles.
Zach LaVine scored 38 points. LeBron James 28 points. No Anthony Davis.

Wendell Carter, Jr. out for Bulls. Jared Dudley out for Lakers. LeBron James listed as questionable.

Legendary college basketball coach Bobby Knight once said “defense is just offense without the ball” and that’s the perfect description of the style of defense Frank Vogel has the world champion Los Angeles Lakers playing.

Defense in the NBA is usually by definition a passive and reactive response to what the offense does and most schemes are built around philosophies designed to defend pick-and-roll actions and protect the paint and rim. Despite an upgraded offense that no longer has to rely entirely on LeBron James and Anthony Davis, Frank Vogel has fully embraced Bobby Knight’s mantra and transformed the Lakers’ defense into a deadly lethal weapon.

What we’re seeing from the Lakers’ defense is the expansion and evolution of the suffocating schemes Frank Vogel unveiled in last season’s playoffs that dominated opposing offenses on the way to winning the championship. The Lakers’ weaponized defense includes aggressive traps and hedges to attack on-ball screens and prevent ball handlers from getting to the rim plus a versatile array of individual defenders who can shutdown elite scorers.

Rob Pelinka and the Lakers’ front office and Frank Vogel and his coaching staff deserve praise for their vision and courage in dramatically changing their base defensive strategy and the front court personnel to implement it. They replaced the drop coverage strategy and traditional low post centers that anchored their regular season defense with more aggressive trap and hedge schemes and smarter, more versatile defenders at center position.

The Lakers’ regular season defensive strategy was a remnant of Frank Vogel’s successful stint coaching the Indiana Pacers and Roy Hibbert where elite defense started inside-out with verticality rules and rim protection. Anchored by traditional centers JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard, the Lakers drop coverage defense dominated the regular season by forcing shooters to take pull-up jumpers from midrange and beyond the arc.

Faced with a gauntlet of elite pull-up jump shooters like Damian Lillard, James Harden, Jamal Murray, and Tyler Herro in the playoffs, the Lakers benched McGee and Howard and abandoned their drop coverage defense. Instead, they opted to trap, hedge, and double the lead ball handler off screens to prevent them from shooting or getting to the rim, relying on a faster, quicker, and more athletic lineup to rotate to protect the rim.

What made the Lakers new outside-in defense work was Markieff Morris playing the four to free up Anthony Davis to play the five. The rest is history. The Lakers dominated the playoffs and won their 17th championship. Having watched their traditional low post centers become unplayable in the playoffs, the Lakers didn’t hesitate to make a change, replacing JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard with Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell.

While Gasol and Harrell are not the elite rim protectors that McGee and Howard were, they’ve both excellent positional defenders and the Lakers overall defense and rim protection has been even better than last season. Besides the impressive boost they’ve given the Lakers’ offense, Gasol’s physical size, toughness, and high basketball IQ and Harrell’s quickness, athleticism, and ability to draw charges have upgraded the Lakers defense.

While the sample size is still small, the Lakers right now have the best record in the league at 11–3, the best defensive rating at 104.0, and the best net rating at 11.0 — all numbers dramatically better than last season.

The second way the Lakers weaponized their defense this regular season is by better utilizing their upgraded portfolio of individual defenders who are capable of shutting down elite scorers like Damian Lillard or James Harden. This was part of the Lakers’ defensive strategy during the playoffs when we saw LeBron James and Anthony Davis volunteer and personally take the responsibility for defending the other team’s star player or red hot scorer.

We saw that last night when Anthony Davis took over guarding the Pelicans’ Brandon Ingram after he exploded for 17 points on 8 of 9 shooting in the first half. Davis held him to 3 points on 1 of 6 from the field the second half. The willingness of James and Davis to defend the other team’s best player gives the Lakers an advantage over other teams like the Bucks or Nets who have superstars who are reluctant or unable to defend opposing superstars.

In the end, great team defense still requires players who can play great individual defense and that’s a big reason why the Lakers’ defense is such a lethal and powerful weapon, especially at games’ end and in the playoffs. Alex Caruso, Kyle Kuzma, Markieff Morris, Talen Horton-Tucker, LeBron James, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Marc Gasol, and Montrezl Harrell all have defensive ratings that are below the Lakers team best 104.0 rating.

What’s scary for Lakers’ opponents is that Anthony Davis is just starting to play up to the level of a DPOY, having only a 104.9 defensive rating for the season but posting an impressive 91.3 defensive rating his last four games.

What’s remarkable about the Lakers’ defensive evolution this season has been how Frank Vogel has modified his long held belief that defense starts inside-out with protecting the rim and embraced this outside-in strategy. Vogel’s ability to adapt to changes in the game is a remarkable and frankly an unexpected development that’s been an important aspect of the Lakers’ championship run last season and their chances to repeat this season.

That Frank Vogel made this defensive change in strategy in the heat of the playoffs and then doubled down on it for the regular season by replacing both McGee and Howard with Gasol and Harrell is even more remarkable. While it’s still early and the sample size is small, the Lakers have shown no sign of abandoning their ‘defense first’ identity. In fact, there are foreboding signs they may have weaponized their defense to be better this season.

Teams hoping the Los Angeles Lakers traded their championship defense for offensive firepower may end up being extremely disappointed because it looks like for this team ‘defense is just offense without the basketball.’

When the LA Times Lakers Blog imploded back in 2012, Val (AKA Nuggets Country) was the first person I turned to in my quest to build what eventually became Lakerholics.Net and now Lakerholics.Com.

Val and I along with several other passionate LA Times Lakers Bloggers played with different ideas, formats, and platforms for the new site. Among them were Mike (AKA CyberCosmiX), Lew Mariano (AKA Lewsters), and Kenny Marks. I don’t know whether it was a continuation of the controversy that plagued the LA Times Lakers Blog or just five guys with different visions but In the end, Mike and Kenny decided to go one direction with TrueLakersFans and Val and I decided to go another with Lakerholics.

Val just emailed me that he has a severe case of Covid-19 and I asked permission to reveal his real name and let his longtime blog friends know of his situation so they could wish him well and include him in their prayers. Val retired many years ago after a highly successful business career and is presently the Mayor of Woodland Park, CO. You can check his exploits at https://www.valcarrwp.com/.

In the meantime, it was inevitable that Covid would strike one of our own so join me in wishing Nuggets Country a fast recovery so he can join us in celebrating the purple and gold’s 18th NBA championship this summer. Stay strong and fight hard, Val. You’re in our hearts and prayers.

Watching the Lakers play, reviewing their roster, and analyzing the stats for the first seven games, it’s hard not to wonder if the Lakers have traded the defense-first strategy that won them a championship for better offense.

Anybody watching the games can see the difference. The Lakers no longer have to rely entirely on LeBron James and Anthony Davis on offense but the defense is riddled with holes and once great rim protection is non-existent. Replacing Avery Bradley, JaVale McGee, and Dwight Howard with Dennis Schroder, Marc Gasol, and Montrezl Harrell has clearly turbo charged the Lakers’ offense but the cost may have been their championship defense.

The stats so far tell the same story as the eye test. Offensively, the Lakers rank 3rd in offensive rating, 5th in points scored per game, 2nd in team plus/minus, 2nd in field goal percentage, and 3rd in 3-point percentage. Defensively, they rank 6th in defensive rating, 6th in opponent points allowed per game, 8th in opponent field goal percentage, 6th in opponent 3-point percentage, 8th in blocks per game, and 25th in steals per game.

While championship teams rarely abandon the strategy that helped them win a title, have the Lakers traded their championship defense to get more firepower on offense this offseason or is there something else going on?

The truth is there’s a lot going on that’s caused the defensive problems that have plagued the Lakers through their first seven games, including roster and scheduling changes as well as a major change in defensive philosophy.

Let’s start with the obvious. It’s only been 83 days since Lakers won the championship, they had a shortened 3 week training camp. Their preseason consisted of just 4 games and they’ve only played 6 games this season. Needless to day, it’s unfair to expect the Lakers to be playing defense at the level they did in the playoffs at this point in the season. Like Frank Vogel warned, it’s going to take time for the players to get back into game shape.

While the Lakers returned twelve players from last year’s squad, they also added five new players in Dennis Schroeder, Montrezl Harrell, Marc Gasol, Wesley Matthews, and Talen Horton-Tucker to an already deep rotation. Adding that many players to the Lakers lineups is going to be a challenge that will take time to click, especially on the defensive end where reading schemes and rotating in sync are critical to Vogel’s defensive system.

While it’s the regular season, the Lakers are still experimenting with lineups and players still working to get into game condition. We probably won’t see the real Lakers’ defense until we’re a fourth of the way through the season.

So what will the ‘real’ Lakers’ defense look like? Have we traded defense for offense? Have we sacrificed rim protection for more offense? The answer is defense is still the priority but there’s been a major change in philosophy.

The change in philosophy started in the playoffs last season when the Lakers stopped having McGee and Howard play drop coverage and went to more athletic defensive lineups that could rotate more quickly and challenge shots. There’s no question the Lakers’ rim protection right now is not what it was last year in the regular season when JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard were playing a combined 35.5 minutes and blocking 2.5 shots per game.

But McGee and Howard were not the rim protection formula the Lakers used to win their 17th NBA championship. While Howard was key in the Denver series, both he and McGee became unplayable most of the playoffs. The defensive lineup that won last year’s championship was Davis at the five, Morris at the four, and James at the three, plus two guards. Vogel confirmed last week that lineup was still the Lakers’ core defensive formula.

So the question that needs to be asked is what’s happened to the Lakers’ core defensive formula? Why haven’t the Davis, Morris, James, and two guards lineup had the defensive impact this season they had in the playoffs? The answer is simple. Despite reiterating that AD, Keef, LeBron, and two guards were still the Lakers defensive formula and Death Star lineup to close games, Frank has simply not played them together so far this season.

Instead, Frank has experimented with different lineups and rotations and has only played AD, Keef, and LeBron together in 2 games for just 6 minutes, which is the major reason why the Lakers’ defense has been subpar. The other problem is he’s played Gasol or Harrell at center for 44.4 minutes per game or over 93% of the time, meaning Davis has only averaged 3.6 minutes per game or just 7% of the game at the center position.

Finally, as he has openly admitted himself, Anthony Davis has really not played well defensively so far this season. In fact, his 114.0 defensive rating is the worst of any player in the Lakers rotation through the first six games.

What the Lakers have done is to double down on the defensive formula that won them their championship last year, which was to rely more on speed, quickness, and athleticism to create better defense than size at the rim.

Rather than bring back traditional centers who became obsolete in the playoffs, the Lakers replaced them with centers with defensive smarts and athleticism to defend all over the court and ability to contribute on offense. It’s going to take Marc Gasol and Montrezl Harrell time and experience to learn how to play in Frank Vogel’s defense and that’s why they’re getting the minutes at center right now rather than Anthony Davis or Markieff Morris.

Like McGee and Howard, Gasol and Harrell at the five will be the Lakers’ regular season plan but down the stretch and in the playoffs, Vogel will once again turn to the championship formula of Davis, Morris, and James.

The image of LeBron’s evolution from high school prodigy to Cavs rookie to Heatles hero to Cavs redeemer to Lakers savior is a reminder of the long and winding road that finally brought the King to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Sometimes it’s hard to smile and feel good about anything when everything around you seems to be falling apart and the world we used to know seems like a distant memory until you remember the Lakers are NBA champions. For die hard fans like me, the Lakers winning the championship in the bubble in October was better than even my Yankees winning a World Series. I can say with no exaggeration that it was the greatest championship ever.

With Covid-19 killing thousands every day, millions out of work and unable to support their families, and children going hungry, the idea something as trivial and unimportant as sports can be a blessing is almost inconceivable. But that’s what’s special about human fortitude and resilience, the ability see past disaster and dismay, to smile in the face of fate and misfortune, to persevere and believe things will get better and good times will return.

Sports has always been our safety valve, our escape vehicle when everyday life became suffocating. Whether an endless war or now a never ending pandemic, America has always been able to turn to sports for needed relief. That’s what millions of Lakers fans did less than three months ago as the purple and gold survived unprecedented challenges to win their 17th NBA championship in an arena without fans in the bubble in Orlando, Florida.

And don’t believe for a moment the Lakers finally winning that elusive 17th championship the same year we lost Kobe Bryant to tragedy was simple coincidence. The Lakers were inspired to win that title for Kobe Bryant.

Now, as we prepare to usher in a new year as the pandemic rages wild, the Lakers once again may be our only respite from the daily horrors Covid-19 continues to inflict on our families, friends, neighbors, and communities.

While the Lakers face another championship campaign transformed by the pandemic, it’s important we count our blessings as fans and ignore the never satisfied ‘what-have-you-done-for-me-lately’ Twitter fed universe. Don’t let the sluggish start to the season after the shortest offseason in professional sports history dim the bright reality that the Lakers had the best offseason and are even better than last season’s championship team.

Those blessings start with LeBron James, still at 36-years old the best player on the planet showing no signs of slowing down and unquestionably the catalyst behind the Lakers’ resurrection after ten years of disappointment. Earvin Johnson’s brief reign running the Lakers’ front office was definitely flawed but his free agent signing of LeBron James triggered the team’s revival and earned him the team’s gratitude and a 2020 championship ring.

After Magic Johnson and LeBron James, next on or list of Lakers’ blessings come owner Jeanie Buss and the late Kobe Bryant, the duo responsible for hiring, promoting, and trusting Rob Pelinka to run the team’s front office. When Rob took over, the Lakers had become a laughing stock in the media with daily stories regaling the dysfunction and incompetence of the front office and predicting a franchise destined for a doom and gloom future.

Jeanie’s decision to trust Kobe and empower Rob despite critics was the turning point as it took Pelinka just six months to steady the ship, trade for Anthony Davis, hire Frank Vogel as coach, and build a championship team. The rest is history: Vogel was the perfect coach, LeBron and AD the best superstar pairing in the league, and the supporting cast Pelinka assembled after being spurned by Kawhi the ideal roster to prevail in the bubble.

Watching the Lakers receive their championship rings last week in an empty Staples Center was a bittersweet reminder of the daunting challenge they overcame and the bright beacon of hope they shone in a world gone dark.

As we prepare to say goodbye to 2020, the Lakers face a challenge similar to what they confronted in the bubble but also different. While there are still no fans in the arenas, there’s also no bubble to protect teams from Covid. Players are left like the rest of us to create their own bubbles, to make smart decisions how to protect themselves and their teammates. How they handle this responsibility will determine their fate and the next NBA champion.

Like in the bubble, strong leadership, chemistry, culture, and commitment and a deeper and more talented roster than last season will give the Lakers an edge that should bode well for their chances or repeating as champions. While the new season started just 71 days after last season ended with a compressed and shortened to 72-games schedule and a raging pandemic, I’m smiling because the Lakers remain the odds on favorites to win again.

Frank Vogel is still the perfect coach, LeBron James and Anthony Davis are still the best two players, and the roster Rob Pelinka and the front office assembled a dramatic upgrade and the best and deepest in the league. While politics are still a mess, the states are struggling to vaccinate millions, and the economy years from full recovery, Lakers fans are again blessed by the ultimate distraction from everyday worries: a championship quest.

The old normal is long gone and nobody knows for sure what the new normal will end up being and we still keep hearing we’re not out of the woods and the next few months could well be the darkest yet to come. While the new year won’t end the pandemic, the vaccines promise light at the end of the tunnel and the Lakers’ quest for an 18th NBA championship will give us another chance to escape all the the gloom and celebrate.

So please build your own smart bubble and safely celebrate the new year by watching the Lakers continue their quest for their 18th NBA championship. That’s the way to be sure you’ll here in July when we hoist the banner.

Happy New Year, Lakerholics!