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.
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.
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