Thought Starter...
Giving up a game.
The Lakers offense has been stuck in the mud for the last few weeks.
Monday at the Crypt against Detroit, the Lakers shot 54% from the floor, including 47% from 3-point range. They hit 20 of their 25 free throws, a perfectly solid 80%. The Lakers got a triple-double (28/11/11) from LeBron James. Max Christie chipped in with 17. So why did they ultimately lose 117-114 to the Pistons? Turnovers, plain an simple. After a strong start, the Lakers simply couldn’t handle the physicality and aggressiveness of Detroit’s defense. The blitzed ball handlers, especially Austin Reaves, who had six turnovers on his own.
That meant not only that the Pistons could get out and run for easy buckets, but that they simply got more shots than the Lakers. Like, a lot more. 92 field goal attempts vs. 74. Even accounting for the disparity in free throws (which impacts the FGA count), the Lakers surrendered too many opportunities to score.
It’s pretty clear that the Pistons play in a style that’s hard for the Lakers to handle, but it seemed on Monday that LA couldn’t come up with anything consistent to counter what Detroit was doing.
The Pistons, meanwhile, played a pretty clean game up until the last couple of minutes, when their turnovers gave the Lakers a chance to finish off a double-digit comeback and send the game to OT. But a clean LeBron 3-pointer bounced off the front rim, and that was that.
On the heels of a great set of games in Sacramento, this one stings, and reinforces that the Lakers simply cannot afford to be loose with the ball. It’s been an issue all season, and cost them a game on Monday. The bigger question now—because teams, particularly the more athletic ones, see the blueprint and will try to repeat it—is how do they fix the problem going forward?
—BK
Overheard On This Episode...
“Austin Reeves, who led the team in turnovers, not a category you want to be leading in, had six on the night.”
“It really is one of these nights where you can point to one category and say, that is why the Lakers lost. And on the heels of some really nice wins, this one stings.”
“Max Christie had 17 points. He was six of 10 from the field, three or four from behind the arc, made both of his free throws, had a couple steals.”
“54%, 47%, 80% splits should be good enough offensively. Should win you the game.”
