The Lakers’ defense is thriving and mean as hell
Despite trading away their defensive anchor, the Lakers have filled Anthony Davis’ void by playing scrappy, smart and for each other.
When the Lakers traded Anthony Davis and Max Christie to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Luka Dončić, they also shipped out the skeleton of their defense in the process.
Davis was more than just the team’s enforcer in the paint, he was the spine that kept everything upright. Want to switch? Play drop? Hedge? Be nightmare fuel? Davis could do it all. He was, and still is, singular in his ability to be sprawling.
Christie’s departure also hurt. After showing glimpses in his first few seasons, he blossomed as the team’s primary point of attack defender this year. Christie relished the chance of corralling the opposition’s most slippery perimeter scorers and proved damn good at it.
To lose one of them would be a drastic blow to the defense. To lose both would be downright catastrophic. Or at least so many thought.
What has transpired instead has been shockingly the opposite. The Lakers have not only stayed afloat on defense but have thrived.
In their last 10 games, all without Davis, the Lakers have the best defensive rating (107) in the NBA and have allowed the lowest effective field-goal percentage (49.5%). Two impressive feats for a team many left for the dead on that end following the trade.
This naturally begs the question — how have they done it?
Replacing what Davis and Christie provided the team would be nearly impossible from an individual standpoint. Because of this, the Lakers would have to fill their voids in the aggregate. The collective instead of the individual. The pack, not the lone wolf.
“Team defense…our group is committed to it right now,” JJ Redick said following Monday’s practice. “We have some really good defenders, but you have to play a team defense and rely on each other. Just playing hard and competing. You’re trying to capture that every night. This is a team sport and the group has to be right. More times than not, our group has been right with competitive spirit.”
One of the best examples of how the Lakers have collectively come together on the defensive end is how they’ve dealt with some of the league’s best centers without Davis.
Without a singular player who could battle the likes of Karl-Anthony Towns, Ivica Zubac or Nikola Jokić, the team has had to adopt a swarming approach.
Notice in the clips below how the Lakers make up for their lack of a traditional rim protector by switching (redding, as Redick and the team refer to it), doubling, fronting the post (whiting), rotating behind it and gang rebounding. They resemble hungry coyotes as they surround their larger prey. They’re a family of hunters.
“We help each other,” Rui Hachimura said about the team’s defense. “I think we cover for each other. That’s our first thing that we talk about when we practice team defense and I think that’s what we’ve been great at. We just have to keep doing it.”
Through their group undertaking, the Lakers have been able to alter shots at the rim while limiting second-chance opportunities, largely because they are not as small as many think.
While they do not have the classic plodding giant in the paint that many have pegged to be their biggest flaw, they are physical and long everywhere else to make up for it.
Among their top nine rotation players, eight are 6’5” or taller. And the smallest of that group, 6’2” Gabe Vincent, is a bulldog who bites.
During their past 10 games, the team has allowed the seventh-lowest conversion rate on shots within six feet and is 11th in offensive rebound percentage allowed in the half court. While the latter may not sound all that impressive, they have given up just the fifth-fewest putback attempts within that same span. The result is the second-best half-court defense in the league.
Beyond stopping teams in organized situations, the Lakers have also made strides in limiting and stonewalling transition chances.
After once again proving to be one of the worst teams in getting back on defense earlier in the year, the Lakers have finally put on their track shoes.
While young and athletic teams continue to attempt to test the Lakers in early offense, Los Angeles has done a dramatically better job of putting up resistance. This has often been due to simply hustling back.
In their recent game against the Portland Trailblazers, turnovers led directly to many transition chances for the home team. Yet even when the numbers advantages were against them, the Lakers did not concede. They believed that the odds would fold to their effort.
In many ways, improvements to their transition defense embody their new identity. Nothing comes easy.
Before January 30th, the last game Davis played for the team, the Lakers ranked as the second-worst transition defense in the league. They’ve been the second-best since.
Bottom-line is this group plays freaking hard.
The trade deadline acquisition of Dorian Finney-Smith — who is a team-best +163 in just 20 games — and the health of returning players like Vincent and Jarred Vanderbilt have forced the team to adopt a blue-collar approach to every game. They may lose, but it often won’t be for a lack of trying.
The team’s coaching staff also deserves a lot of credit for this. Even with injuries and massive roster turnover, they have gotten buy-in and effort every step of the way. That has manifested itself most on the defensive end.
During this recent 10-game stretch, the Lakers are first in drawn charges, tied for second in defensive loose balls recovered and have the highest percentage of defensive boxouts in the league (89.5%), an area where they were 16th prior (79.8%) according to the league’s tracking data.
The combination of hustle and gameplan has been the underlying combination that has made up for the Lakers’ deficiencies. One isn’t effective without the other, and the team is benefitting from having both at a high level.
“In order for us to be successful, in order for us to win ultimately long-term, we have to trust our game plan,” LeBron James said following the Lakers’ road win against the Denver Nuggets. “We have to trust and be so dialed in on attention to detail. We have the personnel now that we can really lock in on a game plan...and be super strategic about how we want to execute offensively and defensively.”
“Trust” and the notion of being able to rely on one and another have been talking points amongst Redick and several players in the past few weeks. And for good reason.
Whether it’s the gameplan or a low-man rotation, the Lakers’ margin for error on the defensive end is undeniably lower without Davis and Christie in the fold. But as they’ve proven, there is a path to still being effective.
That being said, there are still questions about how sustainable their defense is.
Can they keep playing hard and precise enough the rest of the way? How will Dončić impact things? What will they look like against the fourth-toughest remaining schedule?
Regardless of the answers to these questions, it’s clear the Lakers are not as one-sided as they seem. They have the sixth-best defense since Christmas and have only gotten better.
They’re long, mean and swarm the hell out of the ball. Doubt or post-up against them at your own peril.
All stats courtesy of Cleaning the Glass unless otherwise stated. You can follow Alex on Bluesky at @alexregla.bsky.social.