The Los Angeles Lakers have been in decline recently. They have lost two games in a row and five of their last nine, and their defensive deficiencies are the main culprit. They’ve given up at least 132 points in three of their past five games, and the rest of the NBA is starting to have that vulnerability fully exposed.
Head coach JJ Redick lamented the Lakers’ lack of defense after the Lakers’ 132-108 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday. The team doesn’t have much time to improve on that end of the floor as they face Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets on Christmas Day, who rank third in points per game and offensive rating.
advertise
After Tuesday’s loss, linebacker Marcus Smart, one of Los Angeles’ few above-average defenders, sounded the alarm and said the team was looking to “kill” the Purple and Gold.
“No matter what the percentages say, no matter what the numbers say, you can’t follow that,” Smart said. “We have to understand that with the Lakers on our jerseys, everyone is going to come and try to kill us.”
The former Defensive Player of the Year also didn’t hold back when describing how bad his team was defensively.
Via ESPN:
“We are doing [expletive],” Smart said. “We are real. [expletive] Now, it’s showing up. … Every team goes through this process, trying to figure it out. You just have to pray that it happens soon and we can fix it before it’s too late. But yeah, when we give up offensive rebounds in key moments like we did, or guys get to wherever they want on the floor, we really have no defense, no plan.
“There’s no help, there’s no pushback, there’s no urgency. So, it’s tough. JJ’s right. There’s really nothing he can do. It’s our responsibility.”
Los Angeles may not have the players it needs to be an elite defensive team, but there’s no excuse for a lack of effort or execution. Although the team has an overall record of 19-9, they need to correct these shortcomings before falling further in the Western Conference standings.
Currently ranked fourth in the Western Conference, 2.5 games behind the second-place San Antonio Spurs and 1.5 games ahead of the sixth-place Rockets.
advertise
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Marcus Smart sends urgent message to Lakers teammates about fixing defense
