Los Angeles – The Numbers*

• Defensive Efficiency: 101.3 (6th)
• Opp. TS%: 51.4% (2nd)
• Opp. Assist Rate: 20.95 (20th)
• Opp. Turnover Rate: 12.80 (23rd)
• Defensive Rebound Rate: 72.31 (22nd)
• Block Rate: 5.5 (10th)
• Opp. Free Throw Rate: 23.6 (1st)
• Opp. Three Point Rate: 24.2 (7th)

Los Angeles – Strengths

Pick And Roll Defense

A while ago, Kevin Ding of the Orange County register published an article about the Lakers and how they are developing their new pick and roll defense:

Jackson noted how Miami was trying Sunday to have its big men come all the way out to show on pick-and-rolls by Chicago’s Derrick Rose–to no avail in stopping the ball. Rose could not be checked and thus was easily able to create offense for the Bulls–something that often happened to the Lakers with Bynum and Pau Gasol: “Now when that guard gets around that screen, you’ve got 5-on-3,” Jackson said.

“As a consequence, we’re starting to try and funnel them in to a place where we have Andrew in position,” Jackson said. “He’s a plug. He’s in there stopping penetration.”

…

[Lakers assistant coach Chuck] Person said “the only true mid-range shooters left in the game” are Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce anyway. New York’s Carmelo Anthony jumps to mind, but he gets a lot of his work done with physicality and isn’t necessarily a pure shooter.

So what the Lakers are doing here is keeping Bynum in the paint when a pick and roll takes place, funneling the action to him and stopping penetration.  This is the Lakers’ new pick and roll defense, and it what has them at the top of the PPP leaderboard for pick and roll defense.  When it comes to defending the ball handler, the Lakers have the 6th best pick and roll defense, allowing just .775 points per possession.  They are even better when it comes to containing the roll man, as they are 5th in terms of PPP.

With this defensive strategy, the Lakers find themselves susceptible to midrange jumpers.  However, as Person mentioned in Ding’s article, they are willing to live with it, because they are confident in their belief that there are only a few guys who can knock down those shots consistently:

This is a perfect example of the Lakers’ strategy in action. Wade comes off of the screen and Andrew Bynum backs up off of him instead of challenging him. The result is a missed jumper/floater in the midrange.

Here is another look at it. George Hill comes off of the screen with Bynum in the middle and Shannon Brown coming over the screen. This is designed to try and funnel Hill into Bynum. Hill picks up his dribble and tries to kick it out, but the ball is stolen.

This defense is very effective for the Lakers, but things could get interesting in their series against the Hornets. As I mentioned in my offensive breakdown, Chris Paul loves taking jumpers off of ball screens, doing so 77% of the time.  He is extremely effective taking these jumpers, so it wil be interesting to see if Paul makes these jumpers early on and forces the Lakers’ hand defensively.

Post Defense

It shouldn’t surprise you that with all of the size the Lakers have in the frontcourt, they are the best team in the NBA when it comes to defending the post.  The Lakers hold opponents to just 0.750 points per possession in the post on 37.2% shooting.  The two best defenders in the post for the Lakers are Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom (Pau Gasol is a decent post defender, but not close to Bynum or Odom).  Again, not a surprise, but the reason why these two are so good at defending the post is because they are able to use their length in a way that they don’t commit too many fouls when they have someone posting them up.

Here, Odom allows David Lee to back him down a bit, knowing that when Lee turns to take the shot, he can get his long arms in the air. Odom doesn’t really go for blocks and he uses his length to bother shots instead (this leads to less fouls in the post).

While Bynum has the length and uses it well, he is also think enough and strong enough to prevent his man from getting good position with the basketball:

Here, you see Al Jefferson trying to back Bynum down. Instead of pushing him with his arms (and picking up a foul), Bynum sticks his chest out and prevents Jefferson from backing him down. Jefferson doesn’t get to the spot he wants and misses the shot.

Los Angeles - Weaknesses

Defending Shooters Coming Off Screens

The only aspect where the Lakers rank in the lower half of the league on the defensive end (in terms of PPP) is when they are defending shooters coming off of screens away from the basketball.  The Lakers give up 0.932 PPP on 41.9% (23rd in the NBA), and the biggest reason why is Kobe Bryant.  Bryant is in the bottom 1/4 of the league in terms of PPP and he allows his opponent to shoot 42.1% when he comes off of screens away from the basketball.

This is a pretty good example of why Bryant gets hurt off of screens.  He tends to get caught watching the ball action, particularly when it is on the opposite side of the court, and when that happens, he is unable to react and effectively get around screens.  That is exactly what happens here as Gerald Wallace (old clip, I know) gets open for the easy jumper.

New Orleans – The Numbers*

• Defensive Efficiency: 102.5 (9th)
• Opp. TS%: 54.3% (15th)
• Opp. Assist Rate: 20.97 (21st)
• Opp. Turnover Rate: 14.37 (6th)
• Defensive Rebound Rate: 76.24 (2nd)
• Block Rate: 4.8 (17th)
• Opp. Free Throw Rate: 28.6 (9th)
• Opp. Three Point Rate: 24.8 (2nd)

New Orleans – Strengths

Post Up Defense

Much like Andrew Bynum, Emeka Okafor is able to use his size to play strong post defense, and Okafor is the anchor for the Hornets, who have one of the best post defenses in the NBA.  The Hornets give up just 0.834 PPP on 41.9% shooting when the offense tries to operate out of the block.  Okafor gets most of these defensive possessions, and he does a very good job of getting stops, holding opponents to 40.6% shooting.

On this play, Okafor is going up against Al Jefferson, who gets the ball on the block.  As Jefferson keeps his back turned to Okafor, feeling for him, Okafor has one arm on him and one arm in the air.  Okafor is able to do this because he is strong enough to keep Jefferson from backing him down with just one arm on Jefferson.  Okafor’s hand in the air before Jefferson made the move allows him to challenge the shot easily and force the miss.

New Orleans – Weaknesses

Isolation Defense

Much like the Pacers against the Bulls, the Lakers are a really tough match-up for the Hornets because the Lakers are a team that loves to isolate, specifically with one superstar (Kobe Bryant), and guys who the Hornets have to defend that guy are really poor.  In terms of points per possession, Trevor Ariza is in the bottom 15% of the league, giving up 1.04 PPP on 49% shooting.  Even worse than Ariza and the fact that he gives up 49% shooting is the amount of fouls he takes when defending in isolation.  In fact, out of the 315 players who have been isolated at least 20 possessions, Ariza’s FT% (% of possessions where the opponent goes to the line) finds him 297th in the league as his opponents end up taking FTs 18.5% of the time.  Ariza’s biggest problem is that he can’t stay on his feet on a pump fake:

In both of these cases, Ariza has no business leaving his feet.  The shot clock is running down and it looks like the offensive player is going to be forced into a tough shot.  In both cases, Ariza bails them out by biting on a pump fake and then jumping into them.

In addition to this, Ariza is simply too handsy when his opponent has the basketball.  This leaves him susceptible to the “rip-through” move that seems to be trending throughout the league.

Whether you like the rip through move or not, a rule is a rule and you need to learn to adjust. Ariza has shown that he isn’t able to do this.

With Ariza most likely going up against Kobe Bryant for a good chunk of this series, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bryant really go off one or two games this series, getting to the free throw line a ton.

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*All numbers come from the fantastic website Hoopdata.com