The Lakers Defense is Punishing

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Welcome to the B-Ball Brunch. Enjoy reading about my NBA musings about last night during your brunch hours.

The Lakers are on a 7-game win streak. Yeah, this is serious.

(PHOTO CREDIT: Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images.)

The Lakers continue to roll as they have now won seven straight games. They are on the top of the Western Conference while their forever rivals, the Celtics, are on top of the East. Obviously, this will be the 2020 Finals match-up. All kidding aside (am I?), the Lakers are winning with something that we probably didn’t expect from these guys.

Maybe it should’ve been obvious in the first place. Frank Vogel, the new Lakers coach, helped make the Pacers contenders with defense. In his five seasons spent there, the Pacers never fell out of the Top 10 in defensive rating (that would be points allowed per possession) and were on TOP in 2013 and 2014 (both years, they made the Eastern Conference Finals).

And now the Lakers have the top defense in the league (96.5 points allowed per 100 possessions). From the games I’ve watched as of late, I feel they’ve turned it up in the fourth quarter. Let’s have a look-see on that.

The Lakers have only allowed 82.6 points per 100 possessions in the fourth quarter of their last three games. In their game against San Antonio, it was more about trying to hold them off but we also saw Dwight Howard‘s Orlando self doing all the things that made him a three-time Defensive Player of the Year award-winner. Against the Bulls, they were down by quite a bit before SOME SWITCH FLICKED. Chicago couldn’t score against them in the first four minutes of the fourth. Finally, while the Lakers struggled offensively, they still held the Heat to 14 points in the final 12 minutes. The Lakers swarm on defense everywhere and we haven’t seen the purple-and-gold do that in eons.

And in that paragraph, I was just talking about the last three games. They’ve been doing this all season. Luka Doncic got beat up against the physical Lakers. The Lakers smashed the Grizzlies and the Hornets. And the Lakers’ first win was a defensive struggle against the Jazz. Those dudes just punish teams. Their opponents get worn down and the Lakers just kick them while they’re tending to their bruises in the fourth.

LeBron James has been in the middle of it all. He’s not giving an inch in defense. He’s staying in front. He’s closing out very quickly. He’s been playing excellent as a free safety. We haven’t seen Bron like this in years and it’s like he’s taking this as a challenge. I do worry about LeBron burning out quicker because he IS 35 next month.

Guarding the rim are defensive-minded dudes like Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard, and JaVale McGee. Davis wants to win the Defensive Player of the Year award. Dwight’s comeback has been well-documented and McGee, who didn’t have a hot start, has woken up in the last couple of games.

It makes it easier for the perimeter players to guard more aggressively. Avery Bradley (yeah, yeah, I know) has had a comeback year defensively as he is looking more and more like the bulldog that he was in Boston. Alex Caruso has been closing out games because of his pesky defense. Danny Green continues to be the 3-and-D guy he’s always been. Even Kyle Kuzma has made some good defensive plays and rotations. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope hasn’t stood out but he did carve out a reputation in the past. And Quinn Cook was key on both ends in that Bulls game.

You can never have more defense. At some point, the offense does have to catch up. It shouldn’t be much of a worry, though. The Lakers DO have two all-world scorers in LeBron and Davis. When Kuzma finally shakes off the rust, he can be good as the third-leading scorer on the team and as the #1 option in the rare time Davis and LeBron sit. If Dwight Howard can turn back the clock, he can provide some offense, too.

It’s all unicorns and rainbows right now. You just hope that they continue to have good health throughout the season and never lose their focus on defense.

With the motivation they have and a defensive-minded coach behind them, I don’t think this will happen.

Bullet Passes

They were both in losses but Damian Lillard and D’Angelo Russell went and got buckets. A LOT OF BUCKETS.

Dame scored 60 in a loss against Brooklyn. Golden State and Minnesota went to overtime but the Warriors fell short even after D’Angelo got a career-best 52 points.

So here is the list of the most points scored by an NBA player this season:

Only Harden took the W in that list. Woof.

The Mavs were upset by the Knicks on Friday night. I had mentioned before that outside of Luka and Kristaps Porzingis (yeah, yeah, I know), their roster is mostly nondescript. According to our friends at Mavs Moneyball, they’ve had six different starting line-ups in eight games. If it weren’t for Luka, there’s no way they would be 5-3. Only Luka and Porzingis have started all eight games.

It’s almost like EVERYONE but Luka is working their way back. Obviously, we know Porzingis hadn’t played NBA basketball for a year and a half. But now it feels like the coaching staff is playing darts with their line-ups.

I’m no NBA coach but maybe they should have figured this out in training camp. At the very least, try to find some continuity with the line-ups. Rick Carlisle is one of the best in the biz so I’m pretty sure he’s communicated with the team and told them, “I HAVE NO IDEA WHO’S STARTING TOMORROW OR NEXT WEEK!!! GOT IT?! ALLLLLLLLRIGHTY THEN!!!”

There’s been a lot of buzz as of late about how Nikola Jokic is playing (mostly NOT good). But we forget that Jokic is STILL one of the best in the league and can shut anyone up with this kind of clutch shooting:

(VIDEO CREDIT: Bleacher Report.)

I think Jokic will be okay. We’re only 18 days into the season, for crying out loud.

Injuries suck and we’ll learn more about the two important Raptors later on. Serge Ibaka got an ankle sprain while Kyle Lowry injured his thumb. The reigning and defending champions might drastically look different for the next few weeks.

That means more responsibility for new franchise cornerstone Pascal Siakam, who only went for 44 points and 10 boards in their win against the Pelicans.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not as hard on Andrew Wiggins as a lot of people who watch the NBA. Against the Dubs, he went for 40 points and added 5 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 blocks. The next LeBron he is not (as many said before he got drafted) but he’s doing pretty decent this season, averaging 24.6 points per game. He can probably do more than 4.8 rebounds and 2.9 dimes per but we shouldn’t discount that he can get a lot of buckets.

So at the studio where TSN does pregame and postgame shows for the Raptors, someone (Raptors analyst Leo Rautins) farted.

They really called it… a gas leak. Amazing.

I just love it when people lose it on national television.

What do you even say to this?

I got nothing.

Watch This Play

Bojan Bogdanovic just broke free and got a wide open shot.

(VIDEO CREDIT: NBA.)

This is why the Jazz signed Bojan to a huge deal.

Rey-Rey is on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.

TNLP on FaceBook.


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