The Los Angeles Lakers’ defense has significantly declined in recent weeks.
On Saturday, the Lakers experienced one of the most crushing home losses in their history, falling 146-115 to the mediocre Chicago Bulls. The 146 points marked the highest they’ve allowed in a home game during regulation.
Every team has off nights, and the Lakers have faced a tough schedule recently, with LeBron James and Rui Hachimura just returning to the lineup. Both were admittedly rusty, and things are unlikely to be as bad as they seemed on Saturday.
However, the defeat to the Bulls is part of a concerning pattern that has developed in recent weeks. Since the Luka Doncic trade, much has been made of how the Lakers’ defense was playing at a top level. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case in the last two weeks. In the past eight games, the Lakers rank 24th in defense in the NBA, according to Cleaning the Glass, allowing 121.3 points per 100 possessions.
During this period, the Lakers posted dreadful defensive ratings of 132.6 against the Milwaukee Bucks, 131.0 against the Denver Nuggets, and 141.7 against the Bulls. As a result, their overall defensive ranking for the season has dropped to 13th.
This decline may have been expected all along. A backcourt duo of Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic, without a reliable center option aside from Jaxson Hayes, is bound to struggle on defense.
When Hayes is unavailable or on the bench, the Lakers often resort to small-ball lineups, which struggle to protect the rim or secure defensive rebounds. While these lineups can generate problems in short bursts, they are not a sustainable solution over the course of an entire season.
The hope is that the returns of James and Hachimura will help alleviate some of the defensive issues with their added size and physicality in the frontcourt. The Lakers must significantly improve defensively if they want to stay in the top four of the Western Conference and secure home-court advantage in the playoffs.