Road to Revival: The new-look Lakers just keep rumbling
After a home loss to the Sacramento Kings on Nov. 11, the Los Angeles Lakers fell to 2-10 on the season, tied with the Houston Rockets for last place in the Western Conference.
Year two of the Russell Westbrook experiment increasingly felt like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. LeBron James connected on a dreadful 17 of his first 71 threes, touting a team-worst plus-minus of -61. Father Time was seemingly creeping up on James, the third-oldest player in the league. Anthony Davis had already missed a game due to lower back tightness. The Lakers’ analytics department estimated the team’s chances of making the postseason to be a minuscule 0.3%.
Fast forward to today: Rather than offseason partying in Cancun, the Lakers are gearing up to battle the No. 1 seeded Denver Nuggets for the right to represent the Western Conference in the NBA Finals.
The Lakers did not wake up one morning and suddenly decide to start playing at a higher level. At the trade deadline, the purple and gold sat at the 13th seed with a 25-31 record. General manager Rob Pelinka had exhausted his patience level, reshaping the roster by swapping out six key rotation players, injecting size, speed and strength into the Lakers’ roster, yearning for legitimate ancillary shot creation.
These new additions transformed the Lakers from one of the most one-dimensional rosters in the league to an extremely versatile group on both ends of the floor. Since the trade deadline, the Lakers posted the third-best defensive rating in the league.
In the modern NBA, lineup versatility is necessary for championship teams. Can you thrive in different styles of games, whether that be a low-scoring, defensive rockfight or a fast-paced, offensive arms race? Can you throw different looks at opposing stars? Can you go big and pound the glass or go small and space the floor when necessary? The Lakers check all of these boxes.
The addition of D’Angelo Russell and the emergence of Austin Reaves added a different layer never seen from a LeBron-led team before. It’s almost jarring to watch James spend so much time off the ball, as Russell and Reaves act as primary ball-handlers in pick-and-rolls with Davis.
Through two playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors, James was often spaced to the wings or corner or operating as the screener in pick-and-rolls. Through the six games against the Grizzlies in the first round, the Lakers had five different players lead the team in scoring.
Even Draymond Green and Stephen Curry, two guys who have laced up against James in four NBA Finals, were taken aback at The King’s new approach. On The Draymond Green Show, Green discussed a conversation he had with Curry in Game 3, recalling that Curry told him he was still trying to figure this new, off-ball version of James out.
Against an elite Nuggets squad, James will likely command the ball much more. Unlike Memphis’ Dillon Brooks-Jaren Jackson Jr. duo or Golden State’s Green-Andrew Wiggins combo that would switch the James-Davis pick-and-roll, Denver’s will be unwilling to switch two-time reigning MVP Nikola Jokić onto James. They’d rather play drop coverage, deterring rim pressure and forcing the Lakers stars to make jump shots.
Russell, Reaves and Dennis Schröder will still see the lion’s share of the ball-handling duties. Most of the Lakers’ offense will be attacking Jokić in actions, but the proficiency of the Lakers’ offense comes down to two X-factors: rim pressure and free throws. If James and the guards can get downhill, generating paint touches to shrink the defense, finding open looks on the perimeter or drawing fouls, they can keep up with Denver’s high-powered offense.
The other side of the ball is slightly more complicated simply because of how special Jokić is. His ability to bend defenses with his endless bag of passes makes the center a matchup nightmare. Head Coach Darvin Ham has to either take away his playmaking or his scoring — if Jokić is comfortably putting up 20+ points and 10+ assists, the Lakers will fall short on the road to revival.
Ham will likely opt to take away Jokić’s scoring. In previous matchups against the Nuggets, the Lakers have sent help 73% of the time on Jokić post-ups, either from the perimeter or the baseline.
Davis has been the best defender in the playoffs by a mile, but it still doesn’t play in the Lakers’ favor to allow Davis to bang down low with Jokić possession after possession. Jokić is too skilled to give him airspace, with an array of hooks and floaters in his arsenal — the Lakers have to show him bodies and make someone not named Jokić beat them.
When asked if he was surprised by the potency of the Nuggets in the second round, Kevin Durant replied, “Hell no! They’re a number one seed for a reason, they got a two-time MVP, they got a deep team.”
The Lakers have their hands full, and Vegas odds favor the Nuggets to come out of the Western Conference. But the Lakers have defied the odds all season on the road to the storied franchise’s 18th championship. Do not bet against LeBron James and Anthony Davis to do it once again.
Sahil Kurup is a rising senior writing about the Los Angeles Lakers and the endless drama that follows them. His column, “Road to Revival,” runs every other Wednesday.