Good Defense or Just Slow Pace??

leking006 · Star Player Joined: 12 Oct 2018 Posts: 6331

Is the Lakers really a good defensive team or they are just slowing the pace hence decreasing the attempts for both teams which contribute to low scores?

lurklurk · Starting Rotation Joined: 08 Mar 2016 Posts: 621

We are #1 in defensive rating—that’s points allowed per 100 possesions. Doesn’t matter if teams play fast or slow, the rating just takes how much your opponent scores every 100 possessions.

Theseus · Franchise Player Joined: 15 Dec 2007 Posts: 14111

Lakers are a good defensive team.

Look how much we turned the ball over and we still were clamping down on defense.

How many jump shots we brick, which lead to scrambled defense and sometimes transition opportunities, and we still lock down. We just have really good defensive personnel and coaching

hype · Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2021 2:12 pm Post subject:

Yeah, missing 2 superstars, missing nearly all 3's until later in the second half, having a TON of turnovers yet you still win in essentially a blowout = great defense.

It's the reason we almost beat a top NBA team in the Sixers as well. It took DG having a flashback career like game for them to squeak out the win against us. Kuz was even playing very solid defense on the final DG 3 as well, he just still drained it. We play with the heart and tenacity as we did in the last 2 and we'll be fine while LBJ and AD are rehabbing. We'll obviously still lose plenty but not just plummet down the seedings which it was starting to look like before these last 2 games.

It's a great sign to see Vogel and the team make such large strides so fast on adapting without Lebron especially. There will still be plenty of frustrating play but that's kind of expected when you ask your role players to suddenly turn into the primary options. The effort defensively was there for pretty much the entire games in the last couple though and with even just that we can stay in most games.

misterchipmunk · Starting Rotation Joined: 18 Apr 2010 Posts: 625

Its funny because if you scroll in the game threads you would think we are a terrible defensive team by judging by the comments.

But in reality we are the best defensive team in the NBA despite us being slower pace than most teams. Our problem has always been on the offensive side especially our 3 pt shooting. It always feels like we have to put so much effort just to score while other teams are finding easy ways to put up points. We are down 2 superstars in Lebron and AD with Gasol and DS in and out.