One of the best parts about being honest with yourself as a basketball team is that it allows for everyone to recognize an area of weakness and then take the steps to address it.
The Lakers have not been a good defensive team. They have not been a good rebounding team. And one of those remedies, they agree, is to play more physically.
Yet what does that actually look like?
“You’re just watching guys get up into the ball. You’re watching guys fight over screens. They’re not dying on the screens. They’re actually fighting through them,” Jaxson Hayes explained after Monday’s practice. “Boxing guys out. … You see a little guard come down, getting into the big legs. Like that’s something physical. Like the big pushing the other big up on the screen. Just little things to get into them, knock them out of the rhythm a little bit so they can’t just walk through everything.”
Hayes, who has missed the Lakers’ last six games because of an ankle injury, is set to return Tuesday in time for the Lakers to continue their NBA Cup pool-play schedule at Phoenix.
The Lakers are 2-0 and have games with the Suns and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday before the knockout stage, should they advance.
Getting their backup center healthy and on the court won’t fix the team’s bigger, more innate challenges when it comes to playing this style. While Anthony Davis is a game-altering big, the team has to provide more resistance on the perimeter.
“Our personnel isn’t, you know, I think if we’re going to be honest with ourselves, isn’t the best defensively,” Austin Reaves said. “Obviously we’ve got AD. That covers up a lot. But we have to be physical out on the perimeter and especially when boxing out. We got to be a better defensive rebounding team and transition as well.”
Lakers coach JJ Redick flipped his practice plan on Monday to reinforce some of those habits, keeping coaches off the court for live periods and allowing players to compete against one another ahead of their third game with the Suns this season. The teams split home wins in a three-day period in late October.
“It’s interesting when you go back and watch the two regular-season games, I thought we were really physical on the defensive end,” Redick said. “We did some stuff today to try to reignite that a little bit, and that’s ultimately what you’re going to have to do. Those guys are incredible shot-makers. They’re incredible offensive players. [Coach Mike Budenholzer] has them running good stuff.
“As a defense, holistically, if you don’t dictate the terms a little bit with them and just allow them freedom, they’re just too good. So we’ve got to be physical with them. And we were the first two games.”
Phoenix, who has been without Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, should be getting both players back Tuesday, placing an even greater emphasis on the Lakers finding some type of defensive force. Through Sunday’s games, the Lakers were 27th in the NBA in defensive rating, ahead of only Washington, New Orleans and Chicago. No other team with 10 wins is outside of the league’s top 10 in defensive rating.
Admittedly, those numbers were worsened by the Lakers’ tremendously terrible third quarter Saturday against Denver when they were outscored 37-15.
“We can try to joystick it as much as possible, but you still have to like … I can joystick it as much as I want, but if you’re not competing and you’re not playing and just not participating in the game, there’s not a whole lot I can do,” Redick said.
“And that’s an aberration to me. We’ve been punched in the mouth so much in games. We’ve been down and came back, we’ve started slow, we’ve started strong. We’ve had adversity in nearly every game. To me, that stretch of the third quarter was an aberration. That’s not who we are. And I reiterated that to the team this morning.”
Tuesday, they get a chance to play with force and prove their coach right — even if it’s not truly who the Lakers are as a team.