Five key takeaways from the Lakers’ first 20 games of the NBA season

How you view the Lakers’ first 20 games may depend on how high your standards are on a nightly basis and how much leniency you give to a team that has been hurt to the level that the Lakers have started the season.

If you’re the most impatient type, a few blowout losses and some individual performances that didn’t quite live up to preseason expectations might have you cursing your TV screen some Wednesday. However, if you’re more inclined to understand how many injuries teams have to deal with and, in some cases, how persistent they are and the impact they have on the rotation, you’ll probably be very satisfied with Team Islands.

For what it’s worth, LeBron James is clearly more of the latter.

“We’re over .500,” James said after the loss to the Thunder. “We’re 11-9 and almost no one is the same team. “That’s really impressive. “

AD joined LeBron in this review.

“I think we’re staying afloat, winning the games we should win, but also losing the games we think we should win,” Davis said after the win over the Pistons. “We could have won the games we lost, but we were OK, especially with some of our top players not being fully healthy. So, I feel like we’re in a good spot.”

For me, I guess I’m more in the middle. Yes, the Lakers went 11-9 through their first 20 games, surviving a slew of injuries to various rotation players while also leaving LeBron James and Anthony Davis largely healthy. good. And the injury-heavy nature of the team — with several players in and out of the lineup and some missing nearly the entire season — doesn’t allow this team to establish much consistency or continuity outside of a few core pieces.

That said, some individual player struggles, not to mention team injuries, can cause frustration. Additionally, on a nightly basis, we have seen issues arise multiple times and in some games question the coaching staff’s tactics and approach related to rotations and, in some cases, question the game plan of a specific team.

Well, in the past 20 games, the team’s performance has been uneven, with ups and downs. If you are a Lakers fan, you will feel that this is the same situation as in the past few years. If all goes well, this won’t be the Lakers’ season.

So, here are six Observations from the season so far, in no particular order…

1. Lakers still can’t shoot

During the preseason, the Lakers took 36 three-pointers in a game and made 13 of them, shooting 36.1% from three-point range. While there’s nothing particularly amazing about this volume or accuracy, the team’s comfort level with taking the shot and the turnover rate in the few games the Lakers have been on the floor, gives us a One gets the impression that the team has fixed some of the shooting issues that have plagued them in recent seasons.

Well, looking through 20 games, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The Lakers currently average only 29.6 three-pointers per game (bottom in the league), and their shooting percentage is only 33.8% (ranked 28th). Meanwhile, they ranked 13th in field goal attempts and 17th in field goal attempts during the preseason.

One has to consider that the Lakers’ outside shooting will be showing some positive regression to the mean, especially from distance like Taurean Prince (32.5%) and Christian Wood (26.9%) A player well below career standards. That said, hopefully that won’t be the case. Both players — along with others like Austin Reaves (31.6 percent) and Gabe Vincent (low volume, 7.1 percent due to injury) — will need to be confident to shoot the ball rather than reject the good looks they get and, well, hit more.

There’s no magic formula here. These guys have to be better than they are and play to their talent level as shooters.

2. LeBron’s long pass

Despite the team’s overall poor performance from long range, LeBron has one of the best 3-point shooting percentages of his career in 20 games. LeBron is currently shooting 39.6% from long range, second only to 40.6% in the 2012-13 season. The only difference is that LeBron is taking 2.5 more shots this season than last season, which is a significant difference in the number of shots taken and shooting percentage per game.

LeBron is especially dangerous on the left wing and at the top of the key, where he has speed well above league average at both positions and has proven to be more effective both as a spot-up shooter and in the face of opponents’ pull-up jumpers. At any time, he is a powerful weapon. defense to contain his offense.

Whether LeBron can maintain this level of shooting remains to be seen. However, we do know that this is only the second time in his career that he has made at least 44 3-pointers and shot at least 39 percent from the field in the first 20 games of the season. The other time was in the 2020-21 season, when LeBron made 55 three-pointers and shot 41.7% from the field.

3. Austin’s struggles

When we were putting together a season preview player capsule for this site, I was tasked with writing about Austin Reeves’ season and the best and worst case scenarios possible. Here’s part of what I wrote when discussing his worst-case scenario:

The concern for Reeves, then, is that instead of taking a step forward and finding ways to improve production and efficiency on both ends of the floor, some of those gains will pay off in the form of more missed shots, more turnovers and overall decline. . The basis of efficiency is that the face is generally subject to more physical exertion and involvement when the opponent is on the field.

For a player who is not an elite athlete in the league, Austin is already someone who has worked hard to play as effectively as he is. And, during his rookie and sophomore seasons, when questions about him grew and his role expanded, he felt exhausted at various points during the season. Next season, opponents will no doubt target him as much as possible on defense and then throw more resources at him at the other end – both physically and tactically – to achieve the same effect.

So, about that…

Look, Austin did have his strong moments this season and I don’t want to describe his performance as bad or be too negative about his performance at this point in the season. However, through 20 games, Austin is shooting the lowest two-point and three-point shooting percentages of his career. His free throw attempts are also down from last season, and while his assists are up, so are his turnovers.

Defensively, Austin took more hits, and part of the reason he was moved to the bench was because of the Lakers’ starting lineup of him, D’Angelo Russell, and Taurean Prince on the perimeter. The defense isn’t good enough, and the eye test shows it’s Reeves who struggles the most of the trio.

Austin had a long summer and now he has to readjust to the bench. That’s a lot to manage for a player who, despite his older experience level, is still only a third-year pro. That said, part of the optimism about the Lakers’ season comes from the prospect of Reeves making a big jump. In 20 games, that hasn’t happened yet.

4. Cam Reddish is funny.

If Austin hasn’t quite lived up to his preseason expectations, Cam Reddish has surpassed him. Reddish’s arrival this year is the latest in a trend of the Lakers trying to find value in “second-draft” lottery-level prospects after being passed up by one or more previous teams. And, to his (and the Lakers’) credit, it looks like he might be the newest success story on this roster.

Reddish, the player who replaced Reeves in the starting lineup, immediately became a difference-maker on defense, disrupting opposing offenses by forcing steals, gaining deflections by jumping passing lanes and harassing ball handlers in the backcourt and frontcourt.

Then, offensively, Cam has had good success in a simplified and reduced role, primarily in the corner as a spot-up shooter or a quick attacker in half-court sideline pick-and-rolls or on the floor and in transition during games. Finish at the rim.

As the Lakers get healthier, it remains to be seen if Cam will maintain his starting job and/or if he will play the same minutes he has recently when healthy. However, I do expect him to retain a spot in Coach Hamm’s rotation. He deserves it.

5. Difficulties in the first quarter, surprises in the fourth quarter

This season, the Lakers rank 28th in first-quarter net rating at -13.6 — the result of equally poor offense (105.2) and defense (118.8). The team trailed by double digits at the end of the first quarter in eight of 20 games and trailed by double digits in the next two games before pulling to single digits before the second quarter. frame.

However, in the fourth quarter, the Lakers were one of the best teams in the league with a net rating of +9.1 – the third-highest mark in the league. In the final frame, the Lakers’ defense was elite, with a defensive efficiency of 101.2 (first in the league), while their opponents shot only 43% (second-highest in the same period).

While there are many possible explanations for this difference in performance, my hypothesis is that LeBron and AD both increased their focus and effort levels on both ends of the floor in the fourth quarter. Yes, getting off to a good start is important, but as an aging, experienced duo, the pair tend to falter early on when they feel the game is over.

Whatever the reason, the Lakers’ first quarter is hopefully starting to look more like their fourth quarter.

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Okay, I lied. I actually have six. Because while everything else above reflects what has happened, this one is a mix of what we’ve seen so far and what could happen…

6. Potentially oppressive defense

The fourth quarter provided some clues for the Lakers defense, but I firmly believe the best is yet to come. The Lakers currently rank 14th overall defensively, a ranking that has slipped from 10th after being shut out in two of the last three games of their last four road trips.

Regardless, the Lakers have been able to lay claim to being one of the league’s best defenses this season when they’re at their best and somewhat healthy, but they’ve missed the most in Jarred Vanderbilt. Good point-of-attack defense, their most physical point guard Gabe Vincent, while missing multiple wing players like Hachimura and Cam on other nights.

The prospect of the Lakers being able to return most/all of these players at the same time – Vincent being the only one out indefinitely – and Backed by any combination of LeBron, AD, Christian Wood, and Jaxon Hayes, the Lakers have the size, mobility, and defensive reach to cause problems for any type of team in the league.

Of course, some individual offensive talents will still highlight this group based on their unique, dynamic skill sets. There are certain collective offenses that will and should always instill the right amount of fear in any defense, depending on how their talent, IQ, and ball movement combine to spread you out and attack your weaknesses. But the Lakers have a chance to be special on that end of the floor and put these teams in trouble, and I can’t wait to see them try to do that.

You can follow Darius on Twitter: @forumbluegold.

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