The Los Angeles Lakers are playing the best basketball they have played since the 2021 season. 6-3 since the All-Star break, the Lakers did lose their last game to the Knicks but that should not change how Lakers fans are feeling because it looks like the Lakers have turned their season around.
The turnaround started on the defensive end, just like their 2019-20 championship season did. Over the last nine games the Lakers rank third in defensive rating, behind the Hornets and Grizzlies. That is the side of the court that the Lakers have been strongest on, when successful, since they signed LeBron James and traded for Anthony Davis. A major piece of the Lakers improvement defensively has been the acquisition of Jarred Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt is one of the better defensive players the league has due to his length, ability to switch, and his quickness. The ability to be the primary defender on Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic is something few players can do and Vanderbilt has proven he can do that and hold his own. Of course the main piece to the Lakers defense is Anthony Davis. AD looks like AD again and that could change everything for Los Angeles. Defensively the Lakers will go as Davis goes, when AD is on the court and dominating on the defensive end, the Lakers will have an elite defense and will be a team that is not fun to play against, but when AD is hurt or not playing at the level we expect him to play at, the Lakers usually lose and are not a good basketball team. He is their anchor, their lifeblood, especially with LeBron James out. Other players the Lakers have relied on to help them defensively are Austin Reaves, Troy Brown Jr., Lonnie Walker IV, and Wenyen Gabrial. Offense is a concern for the Lakers, however, especially with James out.
LeBron James suffered a foot injury in a 3 point win over the Mavericks on February 26th and it looked like the Lakers season was over. Since that point, LA has gone 4-3 and stayed afloat in the Western Conference race for the play-in and playoffs. The offense has not been great since James went out, 22nd in the NBA with an offensive rating of 111.3 but D’Angelo Russell missed a bunch of those games and he is wildly important to them. Russell’s shooting and ability to create shots for him and others both play a big role in what the Lakers need. The Russell Westbrook experiment did not work, a lot of that was due to shooting, Russell provides the Lakers with solid shooting. The Lakers traded for Westbrook because they felt they did not have enough playmaking and ball handling to take some of the pressure off of LeBron James, Russell also provides them with that. Now, Russell has his flaws, his defense is bad, in large part due to effort, and he is extremely inconsistent and takes a lot of bad shots but Westbrook has a lot of those same issues and they are more magnified because of the inability to hit threes. Malik Beasley is also a big pick up for the Lakers, though he is just shooting 32% from 3 since joining the Lakers, Beasley is still a really talented shooter who can shoot with movement and is still a knockdown shooter. Shooting around James and Davis is the key to LA’s success, they need guys like Beasley, Austin Reaves, Dennis Schroder, Rui Hachimura, Lonnie Walker IV, and Troy Brown Jr. to hit shots because 3 point shooting and defense are the keys to the Lakers playoff success.
The Lakers improved a lot at the deadline. Russell, Beasley, and Vanderbilt all look like great pick ups for the purple and gold and I think they can cause matchup problems for a few teams in the West. The three that they could possibly see in round 1 are the Nuggets, Kings, or Grizzlies. I would pick LA to beat Memphis, the Grizzlies are spiraling, Ja Morant is away from the team for reasons I am sure you are aware off, Brandon Clarke is out for the season, and Steven Adams has missed a lot of time and will likely miss the rest of the regular season so who know where his health will be. A Kings series would be a lot of fun. Sabonis would get eaten alive defensively but the battle between him and AD on the other side of the court would be so fun and must-see TV. Sacramento has a lot of shooting around Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox so they will be a difficult matchup for the Lakers. The Nuggets are the best team in the Western Conference and Nikola Jokic is the best player in the Western Conference. While Anthony Davis has given Jokic a lot of fits in the past, this time around I think the back to back reigning MVP has a better chance to deal with Davis.
The Lakers are playing good basketball recently and need to continue that as we head towards the playoffs. The defensive side of the court is the key to the Lakers success and hitting 3 point shots is also a big part of how the team will succeed in the playoffs. I like their chances against the Grizzlies, I’m 50/50 on their chances against Sacramento, and would be worried about a Nuggets matchup. However, the Lakers can’t focus on matchups, they just have to keep playing good basketball.
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