With the Lakers set to begin their playoff run, now is a perfect time as any to unpack a question that’s nearly as old as basketball itself…
What matters more: offense or defense?
There are clichés such as “offense wins games and defense wins championships” that have been used for ages, but what’s the actual answer?
Modern offenses push the pace of play and shoot more threes each year, making it feel like offense is king. This decade, Nikola Jokić has won three MVP Awards because of his offense. There
is no defense, no matter how elite, that has figured out a way to stop Steph Curry.
At the highest levels, it’s starting to feel like the best defenses can’t measure up to the best offenses. However, coaches still view them as equally important.
“I think you need both,” Lakers head coach JJ Redick said. “And there’s been three outliers in the last 25 years. I know the Lakers, I think it was ‘01, were a bottom-third defense, but they were number one in the playoffs. Really, Denver in ‘23 was the only team that had an average defense, and then they were average in the playoffs.”
In the regular season, the 2001 Lakers had the seventh-worst defense in the NBA, but improved to first in the playoffs. With a dramatically improved defense and the most dominant offensive force in Shaquille O’Neal, that LA team won it all, losing just one game in the postseason.
During the 2020s, 18 of the 24 teams that have reached the conference finals ranked in the top ten offensively. And three of the champions finished in the top five. The only two exceptions were the 2020 Lakers, who were 11th in offensive rating, and the 2022 Warriors, who were 16th.
However, in the postseason, both teams morphed into elite scoring machines. With an offensive rating of 115.6, no one was better on that end of the floor than LA in the bubble. Golden State was fourth in 2022 at 114.5.
The defensive numbers for title contenders in this era have been high as well. During the 2020s, 14 of the 24 teams that have reached the conference finals were top-10 in defensive rating. But four of the five NBA champions were in the top five. As Redick mentioned, the only outlier was the 2023 Nuggets, who were 15th.
The Lakers will play the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs, and head coach Ime Udoka discussed the balance between offense and defense before the Christmas Day matchup against the Lakers earlier this season.
“For us, we try to be balanced and we’re somewhere up in the top five area of both,” Udoka said. “I want to do that and that’s where you have the great balance, great scoring, but you need to have the versatile of pieces to do it.
“I think we have a ton of defenders, naturally. We talked about keeping our identity the last few years of being a high-level defensive team and improving on the offense, and I think we’ve done that.”
Udoka did keep his team near the top five in both categories. During the regular season, Houston had a defensive rating of 112.1, which ranked sixth in the league, and an offensive rating of 117.5, which ranked eighth in the NBA.
The Lakers finished with offensive and defensive ratings of 117.0 (10th) and 115.5 (20th), respectively. While that defensive rating for LA is discouraging and perhaps an indicator that they are not at the level needed to win, they did improve as the season went along.
Post All-Star break, their defensive rating was 113.4, good for 14th in the league. That’s still not ideal as a top-10 defense seems to be the standard for a Conference Finals appearance, but it’s progress.
For the Lakers to have postseason success, they’ll need to figure out how to elevate their play in both categories. And there are subcategories they need to improve on that will help them find success. Redick has mentioned wanting to improve their rebounding and turnovers in their series against Houston.
Based on how the 2020s have gone so far, it seems a top-10 offense is more likely to get you deep in the playoffs, but an elite defense is necessary to win it all.
So, the answer to what matters more between defense and offense is still a combination of both.
“I grew up in San Antonio, believing in and knowing that defense wins championships,” Pelicans head coach James Borrego said. “We always hung our hat on that end of the floor and I still believe that.
“But I think it’s a balance of both, and really leaning into the strength of your roster is where you need to lean. Every roster is built differently. Some’s a little bit more offensive. Some’s a little bit more defensive. To me, the best teams maximize the roster, though. They lean into the strength of their players and how they play together.”
If there is one thing Redick has done well, it is maximizing his team’s potential. He’s had back-to-back 50-win seasons with very different rosters and with major shake-ups midseason.
In the playoffs, with Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves out indefinitely, he has to figure out how to balance both and get offensive production without his starting backcourt and come up with a defensive plan to stop Kevin Durant, who is one of the best scorers the league has ever seen.
It won’t be easy, but to have a long postseason run, the Lakers will have to find new solutions offensively and come up with enough defensive stops to make a run.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
