Lakers: 3 roadblocks for LeBron James’ 5th NBA title

Roadblock No. 1 for LeBron James and the Lakers: Their offense is a problem

Believe it or not, the Los Angeles Lakers have one of the worst offenses in the NBA. In spite of having LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the roster, they actually have the 24th-best offense in the league, scoring just 109.4 points per 100 possessions.

Naturally, with a couple of dozen missed games from LeBron James and 35 missed games from Anthony Davis, the offense will struggle. Even when LeBron has been on the floor, however, the Lakers have scored just 112.4 points per 100 possessions, a mark that would place the Lakers 12th in the league over the course of a full season.

When LeBron and Davis play together this season, the offense is a tick better at 113.5 points per 100 possessions, and they’ve played a reasonable 554 minutes together. Where they really make their mark is on the defensive end, where teams are scoring just 101.6 points per 100 against them.

Over the course of a season, that mark would be the best in the NBA by a huge margin. The Lakers themselves have the best defensive mark at 106.6 points per 100, so James-plus-Davis lineups are five points better than the league’s best defense (which happens to be their own).

That’s great, but the Lakers are going to need to score points to handle teams like the Clippers, Suns and Jazz. Those elite offenses aren’t going to be held to the mid-100s very often, but on most nights, that’s where the sputtering Laker offense needs their opponents to be in order to get wins.