How does Deandre Ayton raise the Lakers’ ceiling?

Deandre Ayton knew what he was doing wasn’t working. 

With the Lakers in the midst of a push for playoff seeding, and the collective sense of urgency of the team rising, the 7-foot big man knew he needed to pick it up. 

Being left behind wasn’t an option.

And not only has Ayton “caught up with the team,” as he put it after the Lakers’ win over the Bulls on Thursday, but he’s delivering in the ways the Lakers are needing.

Hustling on the glass.

Setting physical screens.  

Rolling to the rim hard after pick and rolls. 

Taking advantage of favorable offensive matchups inside of the paint.

Being a presence as the last line of defense. 

“[I] felt like I picked up my energy and my focus,” Ayton said on Thursday night. “And I finally caught up with the team. That’s about it.”

The difference in Ayton’s play and the impact on his counting stats were easier to see when the Lakers hosted the Bulls.

He finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds for his 12th 20-10 game of the season. 

Over half (six) of Ayton’s rebounds came on the offensive glass, which tied a season-high, 

But the difference in the way Ayton played over the last three games and the way he was playing the week before sitting out of the March 6 home win over the Pacers is different. 

He’s chasing rebounds and rolling to the rim harder. There’s a greater intensity and sense of urgency to his game.

“If something’s not working, you’re gonna fix it,” Ayton said. “Just gotta get up and fix it. That’s all. There was nothing that led to it.”

Regardless of the reason, Ayton is putting together a level of consistency in how he plays that hasn’t been seen since the early couple of months of the season. 

“As a team, we have been trying to find and build towards consistency – that’s the individual, that’s the group,” coach JJ Redick said. “We know what DA is capable of. I think Austin [Reaves] said this recently: he is an X factor for us, if not the X factor. Because him playing at a high level raises our ceiling. It changes the makeup of our team.”

Ayton’s status as the Lakers’ X factor was already known – evident by the fact they’re 27-8 when he grabs at least eight rebounds. They’re 24-9 when he takes at least eight shot attempts. 

And when Ayton has at least eight rebounds and eight shot attempts in the same game, the Lakers are 22-6. 

But why is he the team’s X factor?

Because for as athletic and an ideal fit that backup Jaxson Hayes may be alongside Luka Doncic, who likes playing with rim-running centers, Ayton has the talent, size and strength to neautralize team’s other big men, like Ayton’s done to Rudy Gobert when the Lakers played the Timberwolves this season, sweeping the regular season series, 3-0.

Because when the Lakers’ best players aren’t in a rhythm as scorers, he can create offense for himself in ways most of them don’t: rolls to the basket, quick seals on smaller plays or crashing the offensive glass.

“He saw a small guy and he was just playing bully ball down there,” Doncic said of Ayton against the Bulls. “Kind of fed him a couple times. He’s been doing an amazing job.”

Ayton adds layers to the Lakers, diversifying the way they can win sequences of a game. 

Like he did during the first quarter with his interior play against the Knicks on Sunday. Or the second quarter of Tuesday’s win over the Timberwolves, when he had 12 points and five rebounds in the quarter. Like he did throughout the win over the Bulls.

Doncic, Reaves and LeBron James may be the driving forces for the Lakers’ success. But Ayton and the determining factor of much success the team will ultimately achieve in a Western Conference filled with talented big men.

It’s one of the biggest reasons the last several days have been so encouraging for the Lakers.

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