The Lakers have aspirations of becoming a championship-level team.
The first week of the season showed that they already have the recipe to be an elite offensive team.
But it also proved that they have plenty of progress to make before their defense is at a championshiop level, too.
The Lakers’ defensive struggles led to their first loss of the season on Tuesday night, a 136-129 defeat to the Trail Blazers at Crypto.com Arena.
“We have to be able to rely on our defense every night,” coach JJ Redick said. “And if we score 129 points at home, we should be able to get enough stops to win.”
The Lakers’ defensive struggles were all over the court, even though Walker Kessler took responsibility for not leading the team on that end of the floor like he’s expected to.
Their ball containment was subpar, leading to breakdowns around the perimeter.
The Blazers’ shotmaking was elite, which wasn’t surprising considering the talent on their roster.
But the Lakers weren’t disciplined enough with their defensive game plan execution.
“I don’t think there [were] any adjustment that [had] to be made,” Austin Reaves said. “It was more so us not doing what we were supposed to. We got to talk more on the defensive end and just be sharper in our base coverages.”
The Lakers’ defensive struggles weren’t limited to Tuesday – which is why they went from being ranked No. 19 in defensive rating to No. 22 after the loss.
The Trail Blazers just made the Lakers pay more than any other team was capable of during the season’s first week.
The loss to the Trail Blazers was the third straight game the Lakers allowed their opponent to score at least 117 points.
“We’ve been relying on our offense a lot,” Kessler said. “And we have a very, very good offense and a lot of great scorers. But that’s not gonna be the only thing that gets us to win a championship here. So it’s a good reminder. We’ll learn a lot from it.”
The Lakers didn’t have to wait long to use the lessons from Tuesday against another opponent.
The loss to the Trail Blazers was the first night of a back-to-back set, with the Lakers playing the Clippers for the second time this season on Wednesday, but this time at Intuit Dome.
“Coach pointed it out and now it’s up to us to respond,” Sandro Mamukelashvili said. “Everybody will watch [the] film, I’m sure. Everybody is going to see what mistakes they had. We all have great player development coaches who are going to work with us, make sure we kind of fix the mistakes we made.
“We got to be better and we will. I’ll be better. I got to communicate more, be more physical. Just got to play hard.”
