In a chat with the media following the Los Angeles Lakers win over the Sacramento Kings on Thursday, star big man Anthony Davis opened up on what has been going right for his team amid their stretch of good play.
“Nothing schematically, we’re covering for each other,” Davis said, via Dave McMenamin. “We’re playing a little hard on defense, we’re talking more, playing desperate, especially on the defensive end. We had some practice days to go over some things that were hurting us on the defensive end. We had time to clean it up, and now we’re just translating it to the court during a real game.”
The Lakers were on fire to start the season and the team looked really good after winning their first three games under new head coach JJ Redick. But as the season developed, the Lakers got progressively worse on both ends of the floor and their record has nearly evened out at 15-12 (7th in the West).
Recently, the Lakers have been showing some positive signs, especially on the defensive end. Currently, they rank 21st in the NBA with a defensive rating of 115.4 but many fans expect the Lakers to make drastic improvements on that end of the floor and we’re already seeing some major progress.
Yesterday, they held the Kings to 100 points while holding Domantas Sabonis to 18 points on 8-13 shooting. They also beat the Grizzlies on Sunday by holding them to 32.1% shooting from beyond the arc. With defensive performances like these, the Lakers have potential on that end of the floor but for whatever reason they’ve been unable to consistently make that effort every game.
The key to their recent success has been a committed effort to work better as a team. This includes things like communicating on defense, making the hustle plays, and covering for each other’s mistakes. Of course, having Anthony Davis also helped to establish a championship defense.
His play recently has been on another level and he’s been the Lakers MVP this season with averages of 27.5 points, 11.7 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game on 52.7% shooting. His defense in the paint has been huge for the team and it offers some major resistance against the NBA’s best frontcourt lineups.
Of course, the defense can’t all fall on Davis’ shoulders and it’s why Rob Pelinka is on the hunt for some reinforcements. With a particular need for perimeter defenders, the Lakers have been scouring the NBA trade market and experts predict it’s only a matter of time before they find a suitable deal.
For now, the best that the Lakers can do is put in their maximum effort every game and communicate with each other so that everyone’s on the same page. With so much on the line over the next two seasons, it’s imperative that the Lakers develop a definitive defensive identity or it could hold them back from their goals of winning the West.
The next major test for the Lakers is on Saturday, December 21st, at 6:00 PM EST against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center. On the 23rd, the Lakers will be back home for a game against the Detroit Pistons at Crypto.com arena (10:30 PM EST) before the epic Christmas Day showdown against the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center (8:00 PM EST).
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