Kevin Durant entered into what is now one of the Houston Rockets’ pet offensive actions with a pick-and-roll involving Alperen Şengün. The Los Angeles Lakers countered with Austin Reaves trying to fight over the screen and Deandre Ayton showing high but not high enough.
It was easy pickings from there. With Reaves trailing the play, Durant found a rolling Şengün, which forced LeBron James to help from the strong-side corner. Amen Thompson was James’ assignment and he probably figured he had time to deter Şengün from an easy path to the basket before recovering to Thompson in the corner. That split second was all Thompson needed, though, rapidly cutting to the basket and throwing down an alley-oop feed from Şengün.
Thompson’s athleticism on that play showcased everything the Lakers are currently missing. The calculus James was employing no longer applies to his 41-year-old body. Reaves doesn’t have the strength nor the lateral quicks to maneuver around a screen efficiently enough and Ayton lacks the defensive awareness to complicate matters for Durant.
Try as they might, the Lakers don’t appear to have the athletes necessary to read and react quickly enough to the new powers of the NBA.
“I don’t know what has to change but definitely something needs to change,” Luka Doncic said after the game. “Think we [were] blown out the last three games. It definitely looks, like, terrible. We got to figure out, that’s the thing we have [to do]. … We just got to talk about it. Everybody got to talk about it. I know [head coach] JJ [Redick] said it’s going to be uncomfortable [for everybody]. As they should be.”
He added: “Everybody has got to give better effort, starting with me.”
Is it just a question of effort or is there just genuinely bad defensive personnel? Let’s dive in.
No Rim Protection Whatsoever
Ranked 22nd overall in defensive rating, the Lakers are also 27th over the last two weeks. The main culprit is the lack of rim protection as they allow opponents to shoot 70.8 percent within four feet of the basket, the league’s second-worst mark behind only the Sacramento Kings.
The natural assumption here may be to put it on Ayton but he is quite good when he’s actually in position to defend the rim. This season, the 27-year-old has a 54.7 defensive field goal percentage on shots within six feet of the hoop, which is lower than the likes of 2024-25 Defensive Player of the Year Evan Mobley. It’s not an elite rate but it’s not one you look at and identify as the main problem.
When Ayton gets pulled toward the perimeter, opposing teams are having a field day. It must be said he’s never quite had the defensive vigor to fight to help his teammates, so his lack of recovery on plays is something to be taken advantage of as well.
Doncic and Reaves aren’t equipped to defend the league’s best guards while James’ return has forced him to defend players he’s a step slower than. Rui Hachimura is too small for some forwards and too slow for others, leaving Redick playing whack-a-mole as one problem appears the second another disappears.
When perimeter defenders can’t apply ball pressure or contain dribble penetration, it makes life that much more difficult for the backline of protection. Great perimeter defenses allow rim protectors to stay one step ahead by dictating where offensive players go,. The Lakers’ perimeter defenders are leaving their rim protectors having to choose between different directions at the same time.
Lakers Don’t Defend The Arc Either
As if defending poorly at the basket wasn’t enough, the Lakers also allow opponents to shoot 38.7 percent from beyond the arc — the highest percentage allowed by any team. in the league Above the break or from the corner, it doesn’t matter, the Lakers don’t contain any of it. When you are among the worst at defending both the rim and the 3-point line, that’s a shot spectrum recipe for disaster.
Shooting luck isn’t much of a factor either. The Lakers are about league average in closely contested shots. They allow the second-highest mark (42.2 percent) on wide open shots but if you’re stuck hoping wide open shots don’t fall, then your defense is in a really bad place.
Perimeter defenders can’t contain the dribble and when the help collapses, they’re not able to recover back to the arc to contest threes. Their half-court defense ranks 26th. There may be some truth to Redick’s lamenting of the team’s effort defensively, too. The Lakers cover the least distance in the league defensively and also move the slowest based on average speed, per the NBA’s tracking data.
While we’re here, that lack of athleticism and effort also translates over to the fast-break game, where opponents add 3.7 points via transition play per 100 possessions. Only the Washington Wizards, L.A. Clippers and New Orleans Pelicans conceded more per 100 possessions.
What’s clear is the current roster construction doesn’t have enough defensive excellence to be lacking in the effort department.
Lakers’ Starting Lineup Will Require Uncomfortable Conversation
Redick said there would be uncomfortable conversations had ahead of Sunday’s game against Sacramento and, at least for one night, it appeared as though there was better effort and intensity. This was the 8-24 Kings, though, so we’re a long way from believing the issue is fixed.
The starting lineup of Doncic-Reaves-James-Hachimura-Ayton is a minus-16.7 over 182 possessions, per Cleaning the Glass. When Marcus Smart — who’s still showing solid defensive prowess — is in place of James in that lineup, the Lakers have been a plus-14.7 over 176 possessions.
With Reaves out for the next month, Redick turned to Smart as as starter on Sunday and that lineup was a plus-seven in 12 minutes. Although we’ll need to examine what that looks like over a larger sample, it theoretically makes sense slotting a better defender alongside Doncic and Reaves or Doncic and James has yielded positive results.
If the Lakers, for at least this season, are intent on maximizing this group, then perhaps the best solution is to move Hachimura to the bench and see what Smart can do alongside all three of Doncic, James and Reaves.
What Is Lakers’ Best Path This Season?
Los Angeles rebounds quite well defensively and forces its fair share of turnovers. This team doesn’t put its opponents on the free-throw line a lot either. That last part isn’t necessarily a good thing, as we’ve already noted opponents are generally unimpeded around the basket.
Athleticism is the path to improvement, so any potential lineup change doesn’t do enough to mitigate the issue. This is where there may be the most difficult conversation to have. How tenable is Doncic and Reaves as a long-term tandem? We know regardless of whether James is or isn’t a big part of the problem, there isn’t long to go with him as part of the Lakers’ plans.
But Reaves is another story. With a huge payday ahead, the Lakers need to be mindful of him as the ideal running mate alongside Doncic. The other part of the equation is finding the ideal salary-to-talent equivalent. Reaves is earning around $14 million this season and the only players who would match up are high lottery picks other teams wouldn’t be willing to surrender.
It will be interesting to see if that equation becomes easier or more complicated when he’s making $40-plus million per year.
For now, Smart in the starting lineup seems like a must. He’ll be virtually guaranteed that spot while Reaves is out. But after that, James’ level of conditioning and Doncic’s commitment defensively will have a strong bearing on what machinations are most feasible for Redick to prop up this defense.
