Despite a defeat in Dallas in which the Lakers didn’t score 100 points, the team is sure they can bounce back during their upcoming homestand.
There weren’t many positives in the Lakers‘ 118-97 defeat against the Mavs.
The defense was atrocious with Austin Reaves being mercilessly picked on by every Dallas guard. The only thing worse than the defense was, arguably, the offense. Los Angeles scored just 97 points, the fifth-lowest total by the Lakers this season.
After the loss, LeBron James said poor shooting was the cause of the team’s offensive woes.
“When we’re not shooting the ball well from the perimeter, those [missed] layups can be discouraging, especially because we [do] so well attacking the paint and getting to the free throw,” LeBron said. “It happens sometimes. We just got to convert those. We’re not worried about those at the rim.”
In this matchup, the Lakers shot a subpar 31% from deep and Anthony Davis, who is usually dominant inside the paint, missed many layup attempts he usually makes. With the Lakers shooting so poorly from deep and AD unable to finish near the rim, a loss was inevitable.
However, when reflecting on the game, Lakers guard Max Christie didn’t think the offense was the biggest reason they lost.
“I don’t think our offense was the problem tonight,” Christie said. “We got a lot of great looks. We missed a lot of bunnies around the rim, myself included, and we missed a decent amount of shots from three.
“I thought we did a good job putting them in rotations, putting them in closeouts and we shot our open shots. Next time we have to knock them down and that’ll make it easier for us. But it’s tough to say some of those missed layups around the rim, missed open threes, they’re not going to hurt us. Those will hurt us for sure. We’ll do a better job for sure.”
Perhaps this was a scenario where the operation was successful, but the patient died. The looks L.A. got at the basket were the ones they wanted, but they didn’t convert on them.
When looking at what went wrong offensively, Austin Reaves looked at the miscues on the other side of the floor.
“I thought defensively we didn’t talk enough,” Reaves said. “Offensively, we didn’t make shots, but I think it kind of stemmed from being so discombobulated on the defensive end. Just have to get back to clicking on all cylinders and playing the game the right way.”
Unlike a sport like football, in basketball, the offense and defense are cohesive and part of the back-and-forth that occurs in the game. So perhaps Reaves is right and a good defense can help lead to a good offense and vice-versa.
Regardless, the Lakers have to improve moving forward. Far too often this season, they’ve had poor offensive games. On Dec. 2, they scored just 80 points in a loss to the Wolves. These games need to be anomalies, not events you can expect every few weeks.
In the modern NBA sub, 100-point games will not get you victories unless you have a top-five defense. I don’t even have to look it up to know this team isn’t at that level.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.