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So much for the clash of the titans. With the Utah Jazz reaching 21 wins in their last 23 games and the Los Angeles Lakers wearing the crown as the defending NBA champions, Wednesday’s battle between the two looked, on paper, like the one of the flagship games of the year. But with Anthony Davis struggling with a calf strain and Dennis Schroder absent due to NBA health and safety protocols, the Lakers didn’t have enough firepower to hang on to the best team in the NBA. so far this season. The Jazz blew them up, 114-89.
The Lakers will see the Jazz again for a two-game series in April and by then Davis and Schroder should be back in roster, but they were completely overwhelmed in this one. No Laker has scored even 20 points. Ironically, no player from Utah either. The difference is that the Lakers only had two players, LeBron James and Montrezl Harrell, hitting double-digit numbers. Utah had six. Their balanced attack was too much for the Lakers, who rely heavily on a superstar who hasn’t played. This is one of the main takeaways from Utah’s victory. Here are a few more.
1. Can the Lakers stretch the Utah Falls defense?
The Jazz play a very conservative defense based on drop cover. It makes sense. Rudy Gobert is the best rim protector in the NBA, so they built a plan to keep him close to the basket. He’s often the only defenseman near the basket, as Utah tries to schematically take advantage of his rim protection by leaving the rest of their defenders at home on 3-point shooters.
This poses a problem against big men who can shoot. The Lakers had a Wednesday at Marc Gasol. For only the fourth time this season, he has attempted at least five 3-pointers. Look at the Utah defense on some of them. On the second, Derrick Favors virtually ignores Gasol because LeBron James displays against a smaller defender.
Gobert offers no significant support on Gasol’s third 3-point attempt of the night.
LeBron arranges for Gasol’s fourth attempt on the pick-and-roll. Gobert falls to protect himself from his impulse. Another sharp blow.
Finally, on his fifth attempt, Gobert crashes near the nail to look at Gasol and walks up to challenge his shot.
Fall defenses have struggled in recent playoffs. Utah knows this well. James Harden and Houston’s unlimited shooting supply tortured the Jazz in the playoffs, and pick-and-roll Jamal Murray-Nikola Jokic knocked them out last season. Between Gasol and Anthony Davis, the Lakers have great men capable of pulling Gobert out of the basket, and in LeBron James, they have a creative blow capable of punishing the Jazz when they do.
Without Davis in Wednesday’s game, we didn’t have a real idea of how the Jazz plan to tackle this issue. They may have to compromise on their fall cover. They may need to stick Gobert on a perimeter player who isn’t shooting to keep him near the basket. It will be one of the most important battlegrounds on which a Lakers-Jazz series will take place. The closer Gobert is to the basket, the better the Utah defense. The Lakers must be able to get him away from him to beat the Jazz. Gasol may have finally done this towards the end of that game but, by then, it was too late.
2. No more math problems
The Lakers experience this every time they play against a competitor. When they played the Clippers on opening night, their Staples Center rival attempted 11 more 3 points and made five more. When the Brooklyn Nets got to town, they rained 10 more 3 out of nine other attempts. Tonight was the worst yet. The Jazz made 14 more 3 out of 15 more attempts.
On their road to the championship last season, the Lakers played against the team that attempted the most 3 points (Houston), and they played against the team that made the second highest percentage of their 3 points (Miami), but he never played against an opponent who paired sniping with high volume. The Rockets have won the most 3 in the NBA, but they finished No. 24 in attempts. This allowed the Lakers to sag on the good shooters and smother the more dangerous. The Heat might have been ninth in 3-point attempts, but without Goran Dragic and Bam Adebayo they weren’t creating the same types of 3s they did for most of the season.
But most of the contenders aside from the Lakers this season not only take an inordinate amount of 3 points, but actually most of them. The Jazz lead the NBA in attempts and are third in a 3-point percentage. The Nets are eighth in attempts and second in percentage. This puts the Lakers at a disadvantage in every game. Most of their shots are worth two points. Most of their competitors’ shots are worth three. They have to do a much higher percentage of their shots just to call, and so far this season they have struggled to do so.
3. The silver lining
A team would rarely rather lose by 25 than five, but the Lakers are in a somewhat unique position. LeBron averaged 38.5 minutes per game in his last nine appearances. Four of those games went into overtime. He is 36 years old. Ideally, the Lakers would probably prefer not to play him so much, but with Davis and Schroder they had no choice but to lean on James. Even though they wanted to be more careful with his workload, James made it clear on Monday that he didn’t want to stay away.
“I think this whole ‘LeBron needs more rest’ story or I should take more rest or I should take some time here, it’s gotten a lot bigger than it actually is,” said James to reporters after a loss to Washington. “I never talked about it, I don’t talk about it, I don’t believe it. We all need more rest, s —. It’s a quick turnaround from last season, and we all wish we could have more rest. But I’m here to work, I’m here to take in my stopwatch and be available for my teammates. “
Wednesday turned into a sort of compromise. The Jazz blew up the Lakers, so James only needed to play 28 minutes. The game was decided by the latter, so his overall effort was limited. The Lakers will have Schroder back on Friday, which will further help James manage his workload. In a perfect world, the Lakers would have just won the game, but the silver lining here is that it at least gave LeBron some breathing space.
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