For just the seventh time in 24 games, the Lakers lost on Wednesday.
To be past the quarter pole of the season and winning at a nearly 71% rate while boasting a top-four seed in the conference, the Lakers
— and their fans — should be proud of where they are, particularly when accounting for all the injuries and player availability challenges faced to this point.
I would argue, however, that instead of an overall sense of optimism or pride for where the team is right now, there’s more of a feeling of dread or, at the very least, a real recognition of the flaws this team has and a strong sense of reflection of how those flaws undercut their playoff viability.
Because, you see, even though the Lakers have lost just seven times, each one of those losses has been by double figures. And, further, in their recent stretch of losses, they’ve been down by 20-plus points in each game and have generally looked unable to hang physically with their opponents.
In their last four defeats, the Thunder, Suns, Celtics, and Spurs used their superior foot speed, length, and overall athleticism to put the Lakers on their heels and build up big leads. From there, they either bury them with a combination of overwhelming defense, offensive superiority based on their ability to beat the Lakers off the dribble while also punishing them with high-level outside shooting, or both.
Take the Spurs game as an example. Not only were De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, and Dylan Harper able to consistently drive to paint and generate good looks around the restricted area, but they were also able to drive and kick to open teammates or use the Lakers’ sagging defense against them to hit pull-up jumpers.
And then on the other end of the floor, the Spurs not only used their strong defensive wings to pressure the Lakers ball-handlers, but in a defensive game plan similar to what the Suns did, they ran deep drop coverages with their defensive bigs to bait the Lakers into drives that ultimately led them to taking contested twos over attempts at the rim.
This allowed the Spurs (like the Suns) to play the Lakers pick and roll with just two defenders and avoid being put into rotation where Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves, and LeBron can all thrive as both scorers and playmakers. Head coach JJ Redick spelled this exact thing out in his postgame media availability and capped off his point by saying the Lakers “need to figure (those types of coverages) out.”
Of course, what makes the Lakers inability to score efficiently against these teams even more crippling is the fact that their defense has had next to no chance against the speed and athleticism these teams have all put on the floor against them. When Redick was asked about how the game flipped after the Lakers’ good start and then what stood out to him about San Antonio building its huge lead, he cited two defensive issues directly related to the Spurs just being the faster and more athletic team.
“Just didn’t do a good job of getting back on defense in transition,” Redick said. “A lot of things stood out, I think being able to contain the basketball is probably the most difficult thing for our team right now.”
If there is an underlying issue that the Lakers are facing and the biggest recurring theme in their most recent losses — and even in some of their wins — it’s these challenges defending dynamic perimeter players who can simply get downhill and then use their size and/or strength to either finish for themselves are create good shots for their teammates. San Antonio did this, the Suns did it (Dillon Brooks cooked them), the Thunder and Celtics did it. Hell, even the Hawks did it.
And, ultimately, it’s hard to see how this is going to change. The Lakers not only don’t have enough defensive-minded personnel, but they don’t have an abundance of athleticism either. Further hampering them is that, based on who the rotation players on this team actually are, some of the team’s more natural defenders and athletes simply do not currently have a role.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not actually going to strongly advocate for Jared Vanderbilt, Adou Thiero or Dalton Knecht to suddenly become rotation players. All of them have enough flaws or hurdles to clear to make their positions in the rotation understandable.
But, Vando and Thiero are almost surely two of the team’s best defensive wings and all three of them offer more perimeter athleticism than both Gabe Vincent and Jake LaRavia.
So, by playing those latter two over their more athletic colleagues, the Lakers will be at a foot-speed deficit and will have to deal with the consequences of that. None of this is rocket science. It’s just the facts of the situation.
And without an adjustment to either the roster or the rotation, I’m not sure how it changes. I don’t expect the latter and the former requires more than just us wishing it so or Lakers President of Basketball Operations Rob Pelinka saying pretty please when calling other teams in trade discussions.
It’s no wonder Redick sounded a bit dejected in his postgame media session after the Spurs game. He understands his team’s flaws are showing and that even though they’ve won at a strong rate to start the year, losing the way they have been can be demoralizing when it’s clear there’s not a natural counter he can turn to to make it stop.
After the Lakers win against the 76ers, Deandre Ayton said he felt like he was in a movie watching LeBron close out the game with a string of baskets that iced the game. Ayton declined to name what kind of movie it was, but one with a thrilling, feel-good ending seemed apt in that moment.
Well, after falling to the Spurs and in the wake of their other recent defeats, Ayton and the rest of his team might find themselves another type of movie — Groundhog Day — where they keep reliving the same loss over and over again.
You can follow Darius on BlueSky at @forumbluegold and find more of his Lakers coverage on the Laker Film Room Podcast.
