The Los Angeles Lakers were one of the more active teams in the NBA this summer, especially with LeBron James departing, and opening up a lot of cap space. It was LA’s first crack at building a roster around Luka Doncic.
From bringing in Walker Kessler to re-signing Austin Reaves to bringing in Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton, Sandro Mamukelashvili, and others, the Lakers were able to plug many of their holes from last season.
However, even with all of those additions, the deficiencies on this roster were obvious, and we are seeing them just a few games into the season.
The Lakers are one of the worst defensive teams in the sport and that will likely not change
With Doncic and Reaves leading the way, LA’s offense has been very potent. They lead the NBA in offensive rating and have scored at least 125 points four times in six games. Those two are likely going to be All-Stars thanks to how efficient they are and how they can just take over games offensively.
The problem is that the same duo that carries their offense is the same one that holds their defense back. They aren’t the only ones though, as the Lakers do not have many perimeter defenders on his roster outside of Matisse Thybulle and Ziaire Williams.
LA is 17th in defensive rating currently, but they have had some pretty porous quarters and halves defensively, such as giving up nearly 50 points in the first quarter against the Utah Jazz and the Blazers scoring at least 32 points in every single quarter. Additionally, against the Warriors, the Lakers went up 40-15 in the second quarter and got outscored 38-13 the rest of the quarter. Their defense completely collapsed.
They do not have a ton of resistance at the point of attack and it puts so much on the plate of Kessler, who is an elite rim protector, but he needs hep. It was always going to be hard to field a good defense with Doncic and Reaves in tow though.
Lakers are going to be able to outscore pretty much anyone in the league. They have so much shooting and creation on this roster. However, they have to figure out ways to get stops. A constant parade to the rim and allowing too many open looks is just not a recipe for success and can lead to collapses in games.
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