SALT LAKE CITY — The statistic that Austin Reaves was told after the Lakers’ comeback win over the Jazz was so astounding that the star guard was taken aback.
“Jesus Christ,” Reaves said. “I didn’t know it was that bad.”
The stat that drew that reaction: The Jazz grabbed 21 more rebounds than the Lakers on Sunday at Delta Center.
The hosts grabbed six more defensive rebounds (32-26), but the real advantage came on the offensive glass.
The Jazz nabbed 15 more offensive rebounds (20-5) than the Lakers, leading to a 34-11 advantage in second-chance points.
Ace Bailey had more offensive rebounds (six) than the Lakers did as a team.
Luka Doncic, who was Bailey’s primary defender, took blame for the Jazz wing’s early domination on the boards, with the former Rutgers star grabbing five offensive rebounds in the first quarter.
“We just didn’t box out sometimes,” Doncic said. “I think Ace Bailey got like three offensive rebounds on me so that was my bad point.
But the struggles on the glass against the Jazz weren’t isolated to Sunday.
The Lakers have been a putrid defensive rebounding team since the moment this group first stepped on a court together.
It was a significant preseason talking point.
They gave up 13 offensive rebounds in their preseason-opening win over the Kings on Oct. 5 en route to ranking 23rd in defensive rebounding rate among all NBA teams during the preseason.
And they’ve been even worse to start the regular season, ranking second-to-last in defensive rebounding.
There was a hope that Walker Kessler, who played in just two of the five preseason games, would be a difference-maker on the glass.
That hasn’t been the case so far, with the Lakers struggling on the defensive boards regardless of who’s on the floor.
“Box out,” coach JJ Redick responded when asked how the Lakers can improve.
Reaves echoed Redick.
“It’s as simple as box out, but I’ve tried to box out a couple times and the ball just goes over my head and I can’t grab it,” he said. “I guess I need to learn to jump higher. I don’t know.”
Whatever the solution is, the Lakers need to find it.
Hot shooting has carried them to a 3-0 start, but they can’t expect to turn into the championship-caliber team they’re setting out to be if they’re being doubled up in second-chance points on a nightly basis. Opponents are averaging 23 second-chance points compared to the Lakers’ 11.3 so far,
The Lakers were focused on cleaning up their turnover struggles entering the weekend.
And they did that, at least for one game, by only recording 10 giveaways against the Jazz
But they still have another weakness to address.
And if they don’t fix it, it’s only a matter of time until it comes back to bite them in a more significant way.
