After another brutal loss, Lakers star LeBron James reflected on what went wrong for his team in their second straight defeat. During the post-game media chat, James explained why the Lakers couldn’t get it going offensively and how that negatively impacted their efforts on the other end.
“When the ball is popping and the ball is going in, you’re able to play defense with a set defense. If not, they get out and run it or turn the ball over, which we didn’t do too much of that,” said James after the game. “But offense can help defense as much as the defense can help the offense. It’s just another night for us where we’re not good offensively. We didn’t shoot the ball well, and we missed a lot of shots at the rim, and they countered that.”
The Lakers have experienced many highs and lows this season under new head coach JJ Redick. In this game, it was another low point as the Lakers suffered a crushing blowout loss to the Mavericks with no Luka Doncic or Kyrie Irving. From the opening tip-off, something looked off with the Lakers and they were never able to get it going from three (11-35 for the game).
According to James, who went 1-4 from three, the lack of perimeter shooting limited what the Lakers were able to do, especially on defense. With so many missed shots, the Lakers had no time to run a set offense and frequently spent their energy simply trying to catch up to the Mavericks and slow them down.
For James, it was hard for him and his teammates to play that signature elite defense when the shot-making wasn’t there. Between missed threes and inexplicably missed layups, the Lakers stars struggled mightily and failed to find an answer as the Mavericks extended their lead throughout the game.
With the dust settled, many fans are calling it the worst game of the season for the Lakers and it certainly seems to have done a lot of damage to the team morale. The question now is how do the Lakers move forward.
Despite trading D’Angelo Russel for Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton, the rotation is still surprisingly thin, especially in the frontcourt where the Lakers’ lack of center depth is felt. The key now for this team will be finding a balance with the three-pointer so that while they can hit it regularly, it isn’t required for their success against the top teams in the West.
Still, if the Lakers want the best chance of making a title run, they’ll need to stack up on the shooters and use their shot-making as a springboard to an elite defensive performance. Ranked 21st defensively, the Lakers still have a lot of room to grow on that end of the floor but they should be able to rise in the standings if they re-discover the defensive identity that led them to the title in 2020.
After a game against the Hornets at Crypto.com arena on January 9th at 10:30 PM EST, the Lakers will play their next two games against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs at 10:30 PM EST.
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