FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

HOUSTON — A few hours before the Lakers’ gritty 100-92 win over the Rockets on Monday evening, head coach JJ Redick spoke at length about the responsibility of his players to be stars in their defensive roles. That would be the theme of the night.

The overwhelming takeaway from the contest was Los Angeles’ ability to neutralize Kevin Durant in the halfcourt, limiting the future Hall of Famer to just 1-for-5 shooting in the second half, with six turnovers. But that approach took more than just aggressive play-calls and schemes from the coaching staff to be successful. The Lakers have won nine out of their last 10, with the league’s No. 2 defense, and are outscoring opponents by 14.6 points per 100 possessions. They’re playing their best brand of basketball at the right time, and Luka Dončić, for all of his offensive brilliance, remains a critical figure at the other end.

“Overall he’s been a good defender for us,” Redick said after the game. “When he gets switched on to the ball — I don’t know what the updated numbers are after the last three games — it’s been under 0.9 [points allowed per possession]. It’s been one of the best, if not the best of all our perimeter guys.

“He’s been more active with rotations and being physical with our switching groups. With him, it’s to be solid, engaged, do our rules, and he’s smart and can execute that at a high level. When he’s fully on defensively, he can guard the basketball. We’ve seen him do it against everybody in this league. We trust him.”

The narrative of Dončić’s defense and the evolution of his ability to contribute positively has been trending up over the last few seasons. It had been a consistent knock against him since entering the league nearly a decade ago, and with the 2024 Finals when Dončić was routinely targeted by the Boston Celtics. His defense became an inflection point for both him and the Dallas Mavericks as an organization. (Dončić’s defensive shortcomings were also reportedly one of the reasons for the silliest trade in professional sports history, but that’s neither here nor there.)

His arrival in Los Angeles, joining an offensive-leaning Austin Reaves and an aging LeBron James, didn’t come without questions about the Lakers’ viability. Adding Deandre Ayton in the offseason, another scoring big, also gave the impression that the organization was eschewing one side of the ball for the other. On the season, they rank 20th in defensive rating, a reminder of the difficulties associated with roster construction.

But Dončić, who reportedly lost over 20 pounds during the offseason, came into training camp with an improved physique and conditioning, putting him in prime position to function as a key cog in Redick’s shape-shifting defense.

On paper, the Lakers don’t have a plethora of defensive specialists. This isn’t a great rebounding or shot-blocking group (25th in blocks, 28th in rebounds) by any means. And outside of Marcus Smart, there is a dearth of physical point-of-attack aggressors. What Redick has done to account for the lack of roster tools is compose a scheme good enough to keep opposing offenses honest.

The Lakers’ defense is a true sum of its parts. It relies heavily on zone (fourth in frequency, per Synergy tracking); encourages switching to slow teams down (second most in the league); keeps multiple bodies within a decent proximity of one another (ninth in medium defensive shell usage). But the Lakers are also hell-bent on helping each other — top-10 in rotations, second in digs and sixth in loading up in the paint.

An understanding of Redick’s scheme means contextualizing Dončić’s defensive skill set, highlighting what he is good at and attempting to mask what he’s deficient in. Contesting shots, arguably the second-most important aspect of defense outside of positioning, is a strength of his, with Dončić in the 95th percentile in shots contested per 100 possessions and 87th percentile in rim contests. This particularly manifests itself as an isolation defender, when teams try to pick at him; Dončić is allowing just 0.844 points per possession in 109 isolations this year, a hairline below Amen Thompson, and a better mark than Jaden McDaniels and OG Anunoby. He is now quick enough to move his feet with ball-handlers in space and has an improved burst, which helps with his reaction time.

(It’s important to note that this is all happening at the same time as one of the most heliocentric seasons in recent NBA history. Dončić is seventh in touches per game, second in time of possession, third in usage rate among players who have logged at least 1,000 minutes and, oh yeah, first in the league in scoring. Combine that with some of his advanced metrics — ninth in DARKO, seventh in EPM, sixth in LEBRON — and the sheer fact that Dončić is no longer simply taking plays off on defense is worth mentioning.)

Trusting Dončić in defensive space, combined with Redick placing him on low-usage forwards and standstill shooters, affords the best version of the Slovenian, allowing him to take chances in passing lanes. His 4.2 deflections per 100 possessions rank in the 82nd percentile, according to Databallr, and a healthy amount of steals, blocks and a positive stop rate ensure he’s not regarded as a weak link in the Lakers’ setup.

FROM ABOVE ARTICLE:

A quick dive into the film of how the Lakers hunt the weakest link

The Lakers beat the Rockets in a low-scoring affair in the first game of this mini two-game series, securing their sixth straight win. Tonight brings a rematch against a hungry Houston team, now reinforced by the return of Alperen Sengun, with Kevin Durant looking to prove he can solve the Lakers’ aggressive defense and double teams that frustrated him in the first matchup.

These mini-series are always fun because they bring playoff-like adjustments. For the Rockets, that will of course mean finding better counters to the Lakers’ doubling of Durant. Having another scorer and passer in Sengun will help, and the Lakers will have to deal with his scoring on the block and added rebounding presence. Cleaning up the rebounding, where the Lakers were dominated by Houston for the second time in as many games this season, should be a top priority for JJ Redick and his team.

Sengun will also give Ime Udoka an additional player, allowing him to reduce the minutes for his main rotation. He played a playoff-like eight-man rotation, with Josh Okogie as the eighth man logging only seven and a half minutes. Amen Thompson and Jabari Smith Jr. both played more than 40 minutes, while Durant logged 37, and Tari Eason (34) and Reed Sheppard (31) both played more than 30.

Sheppard, at 31 minutes, was a problem, as predicted in my preview. The second-year, 6’2” guard, along with big man Clint Capela, was the main target of the Lakers’ attack. Sengun will help them significantly on the boards and on offense, but he will be the third player in the rotation that the Lakers will target. Redick talked postgame about how much more difficult it is to score against the Rockets when they play all-wing lineups with no clear weaknesses (although Luka Dončić seems to find extra motivation to go at and score against his old friend Dorian Finney-Smith).

Lakers game one main target: Reed Sheppard (VIDEO)

In my game previews I usually focus on who and how I expect the Lakers to attack on offense. Their system, built around Dončić, James, and Reaves, might look simple at times, although Redick is running plenty of good ATOs and actions, especially for shooters like Kennard and Hachimura. But their real strength is manipulating matchups, which is often what decides games in the playoffs. Usually, there isn’t enough space to break down how those weak links are attacked. So here, I’ll take a closer look at how the Lakers went at Reed Sheppard in the last game, using a couple of clips.

For starters, here is the tracking data showing which screener defender was involved in the most Lakers pick-and-roll actions on Monday:

Sheppard — 21 picks defended
Capela — 19 picks
Finney-Smith — 8 picks
Smith Jr. — 6 picks
Durant — 3 picks
Eason — 1 pick
Thompson — 1 pick

The top of this list clearly shows which matchups Dončić and Reaves, the two primary ballhandlers, were hunting for, and which ones they wanted to avoid. The names at the bottom of the list were the primary on-ball defenders. Sheppard was the one they went at the most, and had the most success attacking. Because of his size, Udoka wanted to avoid one-on-one matchups with Dončić at all costs, so Sheppard tried to hedge and then recover to his man on most ball screens.

Here is the first action, a double drag that the Lakers typically use against hedging defenses. Sheppard and Eason miscommunicated on the first screen, with Eason trying to switch, while Sheppard almost panicked, trying to hedge and recover to his man. You can see him pointing Eason toward Dončić. The breakdown resulted in an open Dončić pull-up three against Capela in drop coverage.

The second clip is still the double drag, but this time it’s Reaves whom Sheppard is defending as one of the screeners. This time Sheppard and Okogie execute the coverage properly, applying pressure on Dončić by showing two defenders for a second, with Sheppard trying to recover to Reaves slipping out of the action. However, that put him at a disadvantage, trying to chase Reaves, a great downhill driver, and Reaves, with the help of a great blockout screen by Deandre Ayton, gets a high-quality look in the paint.

The next set is a simple guard-to-guard screen, with Luke Kennard screening for Dončić. Kennard is a devastating pop threat, and as such, a great option for hunting favorable guard matchups. He is a great screener, although a bit hesitant, or a slow-release shooter. You can see Dončić orchestrating, sending Hayes away from the action and bringing Kennard, with Sheppard, into it. Finney-Smith and Kennard execute the first show and recover with the help of Eason, without giving up an advantage. However, Dončić and Kennard just repeat it, this time with a much better screen. This time the advantage is created, with the Lakers perfectly executing the 3-on-2 situation, with Hayes setting a flare pin-in screen for Marcus Smart in the corner.

The last play is an after-timeout (ATO) play that Redick drew up in the third quarter. I really like this one because it involves an off-ball screening action, putting pressure on Sheppard, while using Dončić as a decoy as the on-ball player who draws the main attention. Kennard sets another great back screen, forcing Sheppard to switch onto James, despite that obviously not being the plan, as you can see from Sheppard’s reaction and a frustrated Udoka calling a timeout in anger after the play.

When the Lakers play disciplined and add off-ball actions to their main pick-and-roll or other actions targeting specific matchups, they consistently generate great offense, and this is what they will need to do in the rematch.

The counter most teams will use is to put their weak link, in this case Sheppard, or in the previous game Nikola Jokić, or potentially Sengun tonight, on Smart at the end of games. This is why we see, for better or worse, a lot of Smart three-pointers at the end of close games.

Smart missed a couple (including the one in the prior clip) before draining a crucial one later, with two minutes left in the game. One of several clutch threes he has made during the recent winning streak.

We’ll see how today’s matchup plays out with Sengun back in the mix, and what kind of adjustments both coaches make. Hopefully this breakdown sheds some light on what’s going on in these games and makes tonight’s watch even more interesting.