The Lakers are continuing to seek improvement on the defensive end, Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times writes. The team is allowing 112 points per game through nine contests, which ranks 27th in the league.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily just one thing,” center DeAndre Jordan said. “But I do believe that we’re making strides. I think that we have seen great periods of defense from us in spurts. We put it together enough to win games, but we still have a long ways to go. We still can get a lot better.”
Los Angeles has a 5-4 record despite coping with several injuries this season. In a 107-104 loss to the Thunder on Thursday, L.A. played without LeBron James, Kendrick Nunn, Trevor Ariza and Talen Horton-Tucker, all of whom are rehabbing from injuries.
There’s more out of the Pacific today:
- Kings big man Richaun Holmes has been fined $15K for throwing his headband into the spectator stands against the Pelicans on Wednesday, the league announced (Twitter link). The incident caused Holmes to receive his second technical foul of the game, leading to an ejection.
- Clippers coach Tyronn Lue believes Paul George can’t afford to worry about the officiating, Mirjam Swanson of the Orange County Register writes. “He has to keep going, like when he drives the ball, of course he’s getting hit, a lot of guys are getting hit, as well,” Lue said. “We know officiating is very tough … we understand that, but the biggest thing to tell PG is to keep going to the basket, continue to play the way you were playing and we’ll see if you can get some calls. But we can’t complain about it, we have to keep playing.”
- The pressure is on Russell Westbrook to step up in the absence of LeBron James, Bill Oram of The Athletic writes. Westbrook’s late-game struggles against the Thunder show that the Lakers still need James to be their primary star, however, Oram contends. “We have enough pieces to still win basketball games,” Anthony Davis said. “Even though he (James) plays a huge part to both ends of the floor to what we do. So, it’s an adjustment period. We’re trying to figure out new schemes and stuff like that without him for however long he’s out.”
LeBron is finally confronting an opponent he has no chance against – Father Time. I’d guess from this point forward, 60 games per season might be the high end of what can be hoped for.
You can blame Vogel for some of it. He lets Lebron dictate to him how many minutes each night. He needs to keep LeBron under 35 minutes a game.
37 minutes per game for a player on the verge of turning 37 is way too much. If they were smart, they’d play him about 32 MPG.
Isn’t that the whole point of them trading for Westbrook so LeBron and AD wouldn’t have to be playing 35-40 minutes per game?
Yes, but they have been so bad they have needed every minute from AD and LBJ just to not be abysmal
That’s just the state of the Lakers right now, ofc they will go up, how far tho nobody knows today
Lebron also is never playing more than 40 games in a season ever again, which by proxy takes him out of all “current top 10” conversations – hope all Lakers fans are reading this and adhere to it.
No matter how good Lebron plays, the fact that its only ever going to be only like 37 games a year means he can no longer call himself the current top 5/10 etc. He’s a part time player from here on out. Period.
That’s been an issue for 15 years or so… Bron will get his minutes and knows what gets him ready… it is up to the medical staff to reduce his games… Silver may not like that though.
Addendum: I meant to add “counting the postseason…”
60 games per season (including the playoffs) may seem low to many people, but LeBron has averaged less than 65 games total with the Lakers (although the last two seasons were only 72 games). His playing time will diminish.
Even though he refuses to accept load management, it’s going to mean that he will have to either take games off and play fewer minutes, or continue getting hurt and missing even more time. It will be one or the other.
What’s the point of adding players if you dont test them of what they can do, like sekou doumbouya, for example.. Big reason why the lakers lost to OKC is because of their defense, maybe sekou could help there. Instead of deandre jordan, why not try the kid, and see what he can do. He’s younger, & quicker, i think.
Younger & quicker than DJ is a fair assumption!
The Lakers would have to be more desperate to try that… not unlikely though, the way things are going there. Maybe Seku would have the right mind for center… I wonder if a Pistons follower would agree.
The Lakers have had a very easy schedule thus far, meaning their 5-4 record is a big red flag. With a harder schedule they’d already be below .500, perhaps several games below it.
Even in a weakened west your not going to get thru 3 rds with this defensive guard play. It’s been glaring for months yet seemingly swept under the rug by all parties as storylines fall to age and *shooting (*which has been brilliant btw)
No clue how to fix it but Ive had a couple friends call me asking if AD is slipping defensively as they see him get burnt often…..The answer is definitely NO, AD has been tremendous on D the problem is he’s needed on like 2/3 of their plays to be fully engaged …its too much, for anyone really, outside a Ben Wallace who gets to basically just rest on offense —–
Howard and DJ are basically just getting in the way at the moment for everyone, everywhere – Don’t be surprised to see both of them slowly vanish as the year goes along and the Lakers go smaller which will again put more pressure on AD …….. I hope AD is up for it b/c there really aren’t that many avenues to success coming from this team unless he’s A- Super healthy all year and B- A top 5 player on both ends of the floor …… That’s the Lakers nugget that probably needs to cash if they plan to make a deep playoff run, there’s hope but you can’t get mad at the skeptics today if your a Laker fan, this team is flawed
Guard D falloff… LA & NY
Lakers are 5-4 and really not playing their best. They have two losses against OKC. Westbrook is still fitting in. Why must this work right away. They have a bunch of new players. One thing I agree with. Is Brons mins should be managed. You need him strong for playoffs. Westbrook and AD should carry the season load. Lakers will be better in second half. They still can be a tough out in playoffs. But I don’t see them coming out the West.
The Window is CLOSED. Laker fawnboys now going back in closet. All frontrunners.
So every Laker fan is a frontrunner ?
Lebron is the worst GM in the NBA and teams he goes to really should tell him to leave the player targets and recruiting to professionals, as he literally ran off a championship caliber roster so he could sign his friends.
Lakers could be destroying the league with this roster right now, and this team probably wins the title the last 2-3 seasons tbh:
Julius Randle
Brandon Ingram
Lonzo Ball
Josh Hart
D’Andre Hunter
Alex Caruso
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
Jordan Clarkson
Ivica Zubac
Gary Payton 2
Kyle Kuzma
Brook Lopez
Larry Nance
Montrezl Harrell
That roster is destroying the Lakers current one, even if healthy. Proof Lebron needs to be hands off in roster construction wherever he goes next, or he will leave YET ANOTHER franchise in complete shambles and disarray, like he has always done, 3 different times so far.