LOS ANGELES — First to worst? The Lakers’ defense isn’t quite there, but the dropoff sure has been steep.
Coming into Friday night’s game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Lakers sported an 111.4 defensive rating, firmly near the bottom of the league. But ever the optimist, Coach Frank Vogel suggested the pieces for improvement are there – comparing his task to a home improvement project.
“You got all these construction workers in your house and it’s a pain in the (expletive) and there’s plastic up and sawdust and it’s a pain in the (expletive),” he said. “But you keep saying to yourself, ‘When this is done, it’s going to be great.’ You know what I mean? That’s where we’re at right now. Like, it’s frustrating to see where we’re at, but I know where it’s going to get to.”
One of the issues the Lakers have faced is the roster turnover: They’ve swapped out Alex Caruso and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for minutes that are now going to players such as Russell Westbrook and Malik Monk, neither of whom has ever been an elite defender, and sometimes less than that. Injuries to Trevor Ariza and Talen Horton-Tucker have thinned the wing options, and 37-year-old Carmelo Anthony has struggled to adapt to the Lakers’ system of attentive rotations.
After Wednesday’s blown 26-point lead against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Lakers took the rare step of having a morning film session on the day of another game. Veteran guard Rajon Rondo said it was deeply revealing, even though it was painful.
“That’s the one thing I love about film is it doesn’t lie: It shows your flaws,” he said. “It shows your bad habits and it’s going to take time to break those habits. In which guys do have the right mindset and they want to get better and understand what it takes to win a championship, that’s what guys are making strides and habits to do.”
Vogel said he is also considering other scheme adjustments to help this group, even though the Lakers have finished with a top-three defense with that scheme in the previous two seasons. Vogel said the Lakers’ roster has enough talent to be an “elite” defense – but it will still take attentiveness and time. And Vogel said it will fall on him, as well.
“I’ve asked them to raise their commitment and for me, I have to do a better – far better – job bringing clarity to what we’re doing,” he said. “There’s too much confusion. We have a scheme that’s in place and our guys, if they’re confused then I have to do a better job making sure that they understand their assignments.”
MOBLEY BLOSSOMING FOR CAVS
Two days removed from contributing to an impressive victory over the Clippers, Cleveland rookie Evan Mobley might have faced his toughest assignment yet: Anthony Davis.
Coach J.B. Bickerstaff said he felt no pressure to prepare Mobley in any special way for matching up against one of the league’s best players at his position. Even though he’s just 20 years old, the former USC star knows what to do – and he just keeps doing it.
“It’s a rare thing where I don’t have to worry about, with a young guy, that a moment’s too big for him,” Bickerstaff said. “Because no matter what happens, he figures a way to impact the game.”
The six points that Mobley – who graduated from Rancho Christian School in Temecula before a memorable NCAA Tournament run with the Trojans – scored in his first shift against the Lakers is just more of what he’s already been doing.
The No. 3 overall pick in the draft entered Friday averaging 13.8 points, 8.6 rebounds and a pair of blocked shots per game. His old coach, USC’s Andy Enfield, applauded from the courtside seats next to the Lakers’ bench as Mobley rang up early highlights against the most experienced roster in the NBA.
No stranger to talented shot blockers, Vogel said Mobley’s play popped off the screen as the Lakers prepared for the game.
“He just has incredible instincts blocking shots,” Vogel said. “He’s a high-level shot blocker right out of the gate in his young career and just a really talented guy, obviously a USC guy. Hopefully, he doesn’t have a big night coming back to L.A.”
L.A. is where Bickerstaff said his confidence in Mobley first grew during offseason workouts. The Cavs ran him through a conditioning drill, and the stick-framed rookie wouldn’t stop until he had executed it to perfection.
In the games since, the Cavaliers have thrown him into all different kinds of coverages against players large and small. The thing Bickerstaff likes the most is no matter who Mobley matches up against, he competes.
“You see it time and time again the more you’re around him,” Bickerstaff said. “He loves the competition, and he aims for greatness. And we’re fortunate to have somebody like that with us, with the tools that he has on top of it.”
Mobley thrived during his two games back home.
Mobley finished with 23 points on 10-for-16 shooting and grabbed six rebounds against the Lakers.
“It was great playing in L.A.,” Mobley said. “It was a great atmosphere, but I just tried to stay locked in, tried to stay focused on what I needed to do.”
Mobley also had 12 points and 10 rebounds during Cleveland’s victory over the Clippers on Wednesday.
“It’s so crazy, because he was just playing against my son a couple of years ago,” Lakers star LeBron James said. “This gets more weird by the day. They’ve got a good one. Cleveland has a good one.”
News services contributed to this story.