Los Angeles Lakers: Defensive scheme change paying off

The Los Angeles Lakers defense has slowly improved, and a simple change in scheme on that end has played a large part in their small winning streak.

The glaring weakness the Los Angeles Lakers over the first part of the season has been their defense. They were 29th in the NBA in points allowed per game in October, giving up 121.1 points per contest. The situation looked bleak, despite having some talent on that side of the ball on the roster.

Players like Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart, Brandon Ingram, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Rajon Rondo are solid individual defenders. LeBron James‘ defensive effort wanes in the regular season as he gets into the late years of his career, but there was enough talent around him to be a halfway decent team on that side of the floor.

The problem was with all these wings and guards on the team, there was one true big man and rim protector on the team in JaVale McGee, who is second in the NBA in blocks per game with 3.0. But even his high rate of blocks and effort on the defensive end couldn’t solve all of their problems.

With no other rim protectors in the rotation, the Lakers signed Tyson Chandler after his contract was bought out by the Phoenix Suns. Chandler’s been quick to make an impact on both ends, in particular with his 1.3 blocks per game in his first three contests with the Lakers, as well as his 89.3 defensive rating when he’s on the floor.

The Lakers are sixth in the NBA in points allowed per game (100.7) in Chandler’s three contests with the team. He’s made a difference. Having two rim protectors on the roster means there’s always a big on the floor to protect the paint and challenge shots at the rim, but there has been a scheme change on the defensive side of the court that’s had a larger impact.

In the first part of the season, the Lakers switched everything on defense. Opponents made a living on attacking these switches by posting up bigs or wings on smaller guards and guards taking bigger defenders to the rim. The idea of being switchable across the board defensively was one that worked in the playoffs with the Houston Rockets, but the Lakers don’t possess the personnel to successfully pull this off.

It also didn’t help there was a lack of communication and understanding within the team to put together a strong defense. Defensive rotations among new teams takes time, but poor effort on that end adds fuel to the fire and gave the Lakers the ugly product they saw earlier in the season.

But they have seemingly found a solution to their problems. The Lakers have stopped switching screens for the most part, forcing everybody playing on-ball defense to battle through screens while bigs hedge or sag into the paint depending on the ball-handler. Instead of simple switching and forfeiting mismatches, defenders are now guarding their comfortable position, along with working like crazy to not give up easy shots.

Coaches throughout the league use the switching scheme or force their players to fight through screens. The Lakers tried the former to little success, and the latter is now making a difference. The switching scheme requires certain personnel. Having a James Harden who is a strong post defender makes the Rockets’ scheme work. The Golden State Warriors can do this because Draymond Green can guard all five positions. Nobody on the Lakers is a Swiss Army knife on defense.

So this fighting through screens philosophy makes sense for them. The switching scheme promotes laziness and lack of communication since all that’s done is literally switching assignments. Now, players are forced to communicate, forced to amplify their effort to get over the top and make their defense work.

The Lakers’ on-ball defenders have the length to make up spatial differences until they recover around the screen. Brandon Ingram, for example, can use his long wingspan to simply hold out an arm and challenge a shot before getting in front of the player he’s guarding.

It also keeps the big men like McGee and Chandler where they’re most effective, which is protecting the rim. Both bigs are smart in terms of knowing when to hedge screens or sag off into the paint until the help fights through, and the results touched on earlier show how the Lakers are making strides with their defense.

One underlying factor is the competition in the backcourt for playing time. Ball, Rondo, Hart and KCP are all fighting for minutes next to Ingram, LeBron and Kyle Kuzma in the closing lineup. Matchups play a role in who is playing, but showing great effort on the defensive end is the quickest way to increase your playing time.

As a whole, the switch-heavy scheme made sense for the Lakers coming into the season, but the adjustments made to alter the defensive plan are paying off in the short run. Not switching keeps everybody talking, engaged and moving on defense. It’s nice to see a team forced to compete this much on that side of the court, and the Lakers — winners of five of their last six games and three in a row — are seeing the benefits of working on defense.