Dissecting the Lakers' top-ranked defense

If you have watched any NFL whatsoever over the last two decades, you have undoubtedly heard someone comment that former Patriots coach Bill Belichick always tried to “take away what an opponent does best.” I know I shouldn’t bring up a Boston team when discussing the Los Angeles Lakers, but coach JJ Redick has instilled something similar in his team this season. Sound tactics, buy-in from players, and a healthy dash of luck have cooked up something tasty in Hollywood.

The Lakers don’t play much true zone (Synergy says they’ve played less of it than the average team), but they incorporate some bespoke zone principles into an elastic, aggressive man scheme that brings an exaggerated amount of help (somewhat reminiscent of Miami’s funky zone defenses). It’s worked: since January 15th, the Lakers have had the best defense in the league.

They utilize all the buzzword-laden modern defensive principles: peel and scram switching, targeted help, free-safety play, tactical ball pressure, and multiple defensive looks to keep opponents guessing where and when the help will come from. It’s a heady defense that requires near-telepathic communication and high effort to work. The Belichickian end goal: the Lakers want to make opponents’ worst players beat them. Every opposing superstar will see body after body between them and the hoop. If the likes of Thomas Bryant or Tyrese Martin can beat LA, so be it.

To paint a picture with video instead of words, check recent victories over the Clippers. First, watch how the team treats James Harden with the ball:

Then, watch how they insult poor Kris Dunn when he has the rock:

That’s so mean!

A higher-profile example came in LA’s much-ballyhooed victory over Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets, when the Lakers limited the big man to a paltry seven field goal attempts while enticing Russell Westbrook into leading the charge with 17.

The Nuggets game was instructive. The Lakers have a cornucopia of help directions when they play a team filled with non-shooters like Denver, as they absolutely do not care if a bad shooter wants to shoot a three-pointer — and the Nugs have loads of bad three-point shooters. Most teams in the league are comfortable helping off of non-threats, but rarely to LA’s degree. Watch this play:

Jokic gets the ball in the high post, where Rui Hachimura guards him. Lakers’ center Jaxson Hayes doesn’t so much as glance at Aaron Gordon as he jogs up the court; he’s zoning up in the middle. Luka Doncic trails Christian Braun as he cuts along the baseline, but he wasn’t planning on leaving the paint even if Braun retreated to the weakside corner — his eyes are glued to Jokic like the big man is a Fulton beer. When the ball inevitably finds Gordon wide-open beyond the arc, no Laker so much as stunts at the forward.

Sure, Gordon drains it, but the Lakers have had far more success than failure with this strategy — per Cleaning the Glass, which strips out garbage time, teams have made exactly one-third of their flings from deep against LA since January 15th, second-lowest in the league (behind Toronto).

To be clear, plenty of good fortune is involved in that number. The Lakers don’t have a magic voodoo doll they prick every time someone enters their shooting motion (probably). But to an extent, they’ve also been smart about conceding threes to weaker shooters like Gordon and Russell Westbrook (a combined 14 triples), New York’s Josh Hart (six), the Clippers’ Dunn (eight in two games), Golden State’s Jackson Rowe (four, and no, he’s not a guy I made up), Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels (five), Portland’s Scoot Henderson (eight) and Charlotte’s Miles Bridges (11), among many others. By giving weaker shooters tempting looks, the Lakers hope to siphon the ball away from a team’s more efficient scorers. Failing that (not every player takes the bait), they want to make the big names score in cramped confines.

There are limits to this; the stars have to play along. The Lakers held Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to just 33 combined points in LA’s victory over Boston in January; the Jays were determined not to let that happen in Round 2, as they were the only Celtics to attempt double-digit shots and fired up 71 points on an astounding 53 attempts in Boston’s victory this past weekend. Recently, Zion Williamson did Zion things even against the Lakers’ size and depth, although LA dominated from the get-go.

But the approach has generally worked. Karl-Anthony Towns: 3-of-13 shooting, 12 points. James Harden: 18-for-67 over four games. Steph Curry: 37 points, but on 35 tries (including 20 triples!). Anfernee Simons: 3-of-13 shooting, eight points. Anthony Edwards: 6-for-12, and even the shots he did get up came over the hands of multiple defenders. Look at how pinched in this defense is as the Lakers completely ignore Jaden McDaniels and Terrence Shannon Jr:

A byproduct of this help-heavy, protect-the-paint scheme is that the Lakers give up a lot of threes by design — they’ve allowed opponents to shoot a greater-than-median share of three-pointers 22 times in their 26 games since January 15th. That’s a fantastic recipe when opponents are missing. Defenses can only control so much once the ball takes flight, but the Lakers have enforced their will to the best of their ability.

There’s more flexibility here than it may sound. Walling off stars’ driving lanes to allow more threes isn’t the only pitch; Redick has done a nice job tailoring his solutions to the opponent to take away strengths. In both games against Boston, for example, Redick has instructed the team’s defense to stick tighter to the Celtics’ bevy of shooters — Boston has actually shot a smaller share of threes against the Lakers than their league-leading average in both recent games. After all, it’s one thing to help off of Dunn and McDaniels; it’s another entirely to abandon Derrick White, and Redick will compromise his principles to avoid setting his team up for failure.

A more minor (but still important) note: Los Angeles has also dramatically improved its transition defense during this stretch. They were dead last in transition defense on January 14th; since then, they’ve been 11th-best, the difference of roughly a layup per game.

Like all defenses, there are still areas of concern. Speedy guards have given LA problems, as Jalen Brunson, Tyrese Maxey, and Kyrie Irving have had success probing through the Lakers’ big, but relatively slow, defenders — when Jarred Vanderbilt isn’t on the court, waterbugs can flit around without much resistance.

Truthfully, though, that would be a bigger problem in the East than in the West. Los Angeles’ uniquely giant lineups are better-equipped to handle their conference’s brightest lights. Even without a dominant presence in the middle, the team can field a forest: LeBron James, Hayes, Dorian Finney-Smith, Vanderbilt, and Hachimura all have at least a little experience playing center. Add Doncic, whose natural defensive position is power forward, and you have a truly Brobdingnagian core.

However, size, while a great starting point, isn’t particularly advantageous unless the team puts in the effort. Redick pointed this out recently when he acknowledged that “there’s actually only one cheat code in the NBA, and that's playing hard.”

Putting aside the hilarious idea that he came to this realization just “six weeks ago,” he’s right. Remember, we’re not far from the Lakers looking like this:

Good basketball gods, that’s hard to watch, no matter how many times I see it. Now, even Luka Doncic and The Ancient One are flying around like their pants have been sipping Red Bull.

No one expects Doncic to become prime Kawhi Leonard, but effort is controllable. Whether he’s determined to prove Nico Harrison wrong, make a good impression on his new teammates, or something else, it’s notable that Doncic’s three best games by Defensive EPM have come as a Laker. Doncic is usually stationed on a non-threat, so Redick has encouraged him to play highwayman (as long as he doesn’t compromise the defensive shell too much):

James’ defense has similarly upgraded. Redick claims that LeBron is performing at an All-Defense level. I can’t go that far, as he’s still a little prone to ball-watching and picking his spots… but he sure is picking a lot more spots than he used to. After a dispiriting stretch in November, James redoubled his defensive efforts even before Luka arrived. Players are still legitimately frightened of him, for good reason — he’s only faced 26 isos all season, giving up just 11 points! That reluctance to go at James lets him sit in the paint, directing traffic from his usual position as the low man helper, where he’s certainly not shy about sharing his voice.

But Doncic and James get plenty of attention. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the defensive turnaround started around the time that the team traded for Dorian Finney-Smith and intensified with Jarred Vanderbilt’s return from injury in late January.

Switching has been a hallmark of the Lakers this season. It partially protects James and Doncic from constantly having to fight through screens, but it also leans into the strengths of the supporting cast. Adding two defensive-minded, versatile Swiss Army Knives optimized the zone-ish switching scheme the Lakers want to run.

The DFS trade has reaped immediate dividends. The Lakers have allowed -8.4 points per 100 possessions fewer when he’s on the floor, in the 96th percentile, and he has guarded nearly everyone for LA. His top matchups include every notable offensive name from Nikola Jokic to Jayson Tatum to Steph Curry. He’s a physical try-hard who sets the tone for the Lakers. I’m particularly fond of his pell-mell, high-handed close-outs:

If Finney-Smith is a try-hard, Vanderbilt is the try-hardest. Every game, the man leaves skin on the floor laying out for steals, rebounds, and loose balls:

Vanderbilt’s specific brand of defensive freneticism — all waving hands, skittery feet, heedless dives, and impromptu switches — has always freaked out opposing ballhandlers. Offensive limitations curtail his playing time, but that may be a blessing in disguise, as it allows Vanderbilt to consistently red-line his motor without blowing it out.

The rest of the crew has done their part, too. Thrust into a larger role by necessity, Hayes has been playing better than at any point in his career. Gabe Vincent and Jordan Goodwin are dawged on-ball defenders, and Redick has not been afraid to let them try their hands at switching onto centers despite their pint-guard size (see what I did there?). While rookie Dalton Knecht has struggled at times this season, he’s figured out how to mitigate his weakness within the scheme — and when he forgets, Redick has had no problem letting him learn from the pine.

With Doncic and Rui Hachimura playing at least passably, and sometimes better than that, the team’s main defensive weak link has been Austin Reaves. While Reaves tries, he’s often caught too upright in his stance, losing the leverage to hold his ground. Bigger foes run through him like he’s break tape, and even similarly-sized opponents smash him with quick seals in the post:

Smart help can mitigate this a bit. Look at this perfectly executed scram switch, in which Vanderbilt sprints over to replace Reaves as soon as the pass is in the air:

Although Reaves isn’t good on defense, the Lakers are in pretty solid shape if he’s their fifth-worst defender at any given time. Frankly, it might be a positive for the Lakers to provide an alternative target to Doncic. Attacking the superstar can tire Doncic out or get him in foul trouble (something he’s struggled with at times in his Lakers tenure so far).

Overall, this isn’t a top-one defense over a full season. The defensive shooting luck is real, and they’ve had a relatively easy schedule during this stretch. But nobody plays only cupcakes during a 26-game run. The Lakers have shown that they can sustain a high level of play with smart tactics and high effort.

However, without elite rim protection, the team’s margin for error is small. It shrank further with LeBron James’ recent injury.

Anthony Davis erased many of the team’s mistakes. Since the trade for Doncic, the team has responded by limiting gaffes, but everyone must be on a string. James might’ve been the most imposing paint presence the Lakers had left, although I don’t mean that to sound like high praise — the competition isn’t stiff. He certainly was the team’s best defensive communicator, barking orders from the backline. His absence for the next handful of games will stress LA’s defense. A poor showing against the G-League-tastic Nets last night wasn't a great start, and upcoming games against Milwaukee (twice), Denver (twice), and Phoenix promise to test the team further.

Still, the Lakers are fighting for a top-two seed in the West. They’ve been far better than I expected after the Doncic trade. While the defense may take a step back, the offense will almost inevitably improve as Doncic gains more familiarity with his teammates, which could accelerate with greater responsibility in James’ absence.

“Just shortcuts,” Redick responded when asked about his team’s struggles against Brooklyn last night. “If you want to be a good team, if you want to win in the NBA, you have to do the hard stuff.” For nearly a third of the season, the Lakers have cut no corners.

Now, things get even harder. We’ll see if they're up for the challenge.