November 8, 2008
Every Play Counts
The Lakers Defense

by Kevin Pelton

In "Every Play Counts," Kevin Pelton focuses on one player, team or matchup in a single game, looking to explain how and why they succeed or fail. Naturally, one game isn't everything, but the results can be fascinating. Also see Michael David Smith's original NFL Every Play Counts at Fanhouse.com.

Last week, I projected 62 wins and the NBA's best record for the Los Angeles Lakers. Three games into the season, that already feels like it might be a little low. In starting their campaign with a pair of blowout wins and a road victory at Denver, the Lakers have yet to entirely click in on offense. However, that has been obscured by a dominant defense that has allowed opponents just 90.4 points per 100 possessions, far and away tops in the league.

With the Lakers bringing back virtually the entire core of an offense that was lights-out last season after the addition of Pau Gasol, Phil Jackson had the opportunity to focus on defense during training camp. The result, he explained to Hoopsworld's Eric Pincus last week, has been a chance to experiment.

"Now you can load up a side and you can do things that change the game," Jackson said, noting recent rules changes. "Last year we experimented with it at times but we didn't whole-heartedly adapt what other teams have been taking advantage of with the new rules situation.

"I always feel (a zone) leaves your weak side vulnerable to three-point shooting but this is something we're experimenting with this year." said Jackson. "That's why we spent more time defensively (in camp)."

The explanation of what the Lakers have done differently has focused on their borrowing concepts from the Boston Celtics. However, in closely scrutinizing the NBA.com League Pass replay of their game against the Nuggets, I didn't see much similarity to what the Celtics do, which is relatively simple fundamentally. No, the Lakers are throwing out the most extreme defense we've seen in the league in some time. To find an analogy, I have to go back to the Seattle SuperSonics of the 1990s under George Karl, who utilized a version of the SOS Pressure Defense created by long-time assistant Bob Kloppenburg.

While the fit isn't perfect--the Sonics emphasized switching defensively much more than the Lakers do--many of the principles are similar. The biggest area where what the Lakers are doing diverges from conventional NBA wisdom is in terms of the so-called "help line." That's where defensive players on the weak side away from the ball are taught to go to be in position to offer help should the player with the ball beat his man off the dribble. The help line can be the hash mark located a few feet outside the outer edge of the key, but most teams generally use that boundary of the key to define help.

The most aggressive defense in recent memory I've seen is the WNBA's Sacramento Monarchs, who under former head coach John Whisenant used what he termed the "white-line defense," so named for their help line, which went through the middle of the key.

The Lakers are using a help line on the strong side near the basketball, which creates natural double-team traps on the ballhandler. This probably makes more sense graphically:

Let's take a look specifically at how this looks for the Lakers. In the following example, O1 (the offensive team's point guard) has the ball beyond the three-point line to the left of the top of the key. X5 has come up to offer help defense into what is often known as the "stopper" position. While Kurt Helin from Forum Blue and Gold used the term "strong-side zone" in his excellent breakdown of what the Lakers are doing, I'd instead term it a strong-side trap. The zone defense is occurring on the weak side, where two players (X2 and X4) are left to defend three offensive players (O2, O4 and O5).

Even if the Lakers' point guard is beaten off the dribble, it's unlikely the opposing point guard will be able to get much of a shot because there's a help defender sitting there waiting for him outside the paint. This is the first strength of what the Lakers are doing defensively, eliminating dribble penetration. The rules reinterpretations limiting contact on the perimeter have put a premium on slowing penetration, and it's easy to see how this is a reaction to that change.

Containing dribble penetration is valuable to any defense. The other strength of the trapping defense is more specific to the Lakers--its ability to force turnovers. With the return of Andrew Bynum at center, the Lakers can play as big and as long as any team in the league, and do so without sacrificing much in the way of quickness. This is ideal for an SOS-style defense because those long arms make passes out of the double-team-trap ballhandlers face much more challenging, both at the point of the pass in terms of the passer seeing the floor and in the middle of the court, which is more congested with two bigger players defending on the weak side.

Overall, the Lakers have been just average at generating steals so far, but in the Denver game they came up with eight of them and forced 19 turnovers in total. Trevor Ariza, who was just outside the NBA's top 10 in steal percentage last season, is ideal for this defense and collected three steals against the Nuggets. Kobe Bryant wasn't a big factor with steals in this game, but is talented and fearless when it comes to playing the passing lanes. Bynum and Lamar Odom have the combination of length and quickness to make them dangerous as well.

Some of these strengths--and weaknesses as well--are evident in my defensive charting of the game, assigning a defender, defenders or the team credit or blame for each offensive action of the Nuggets.

Player         FGM-A   FTM-A  FTO  Stl   Blk  Pos   Pts

Fisher          2-6     2-2    .5   .5   1    7.5     5
Bryant          3-8     2-4   3.5  2     0   13.5     9
Radmanovic      5-11    0-1   2.5  0     0   13.5    11
Gasol         3.5-7.5   0-0   1    1     2    8.5     7.5
Bynum           0-5.5   2-2   4.5  1.5   1   11       2

Farmar          1-3     3-5   1    0     0    5       5
Vujacic         2-3     4-4   0    0     0    5      10
Ariza           1-2     2-2   3    3     0    6       4
Odom            4-10    3-6   0    0     1   13       9.5
Powell          1-3     0-0   0    0     0    3       2
Walton          0-1     0-0   0    0     0    0       0

TEAM          9.5-12    0-0   4    0     0   16      20

A couple of things stand out here. The first is the balanced success the Lakers enjoyed forcing turnovers. Every starter forced at least one turnover, with Ariza, Bryant (who roamed the passing lanes and paid little attention to his primary defensive assignment on Chucky Atkins, a la his role against Rajon Rondo in the NBA Finals), Bynum and Vladimir Radmanovic all having strong games. Bynum was credited with just two steals. However, his length and ability to front Nenê in the post contributed to several other Denver turnovers.

Also worth noting is the high number of field goals assigned to the "team." A team field goal is one that can't be assigned to a specific player, generally meaning an open attempt. Nearly a third of the buckets allowed by the Lakers were so scored. Here is where the bill for the trap comes due. When the Nuggets were able to penetrate and move the ball, they found open attempts, both from beyond the three-point line and at the rim.

The threes are a weakness of this defense, as Jackson has admitted. Any team that traps aggressively is going to be vulnerable to giving up three-pointers and has to be willing to make that tradeoff. More troubling were the number of looks Nenê in particular got in the paint, either completely open or overmatching a smaller defender.

With the amount of rotation and recovery required by trapping, communication is absolutely key for the Lakers. Bryant is particularly good at vocalizing directions or pointing them out to his teammates. Still, it's evident that the Lakers are still learning this defense, and there was confusion at times. On one play, two defenders ran out at the same shooter and one ended up pushing the other down, leading to an open shot. There is clearly room for improvement, especially when it comes to the weak-side defender nearest the basket doing a better job of taking away easy shot attempts.

If the notion that the Lakers have been so successful defensively while playing nowhere near peak effectiveness is a frightening thought for opponents, it should be tempered with the fact that the Lakers have had the element of surprise on their side thus far. According to Helin, they played just a few possessions of the trap during the preseason before springing it upon the unsuspecting Blazers, who appeared frazzled and discombobulated in attempting to deal with it. The Clippers had little more time to prepare as the Lakers completed a back-to-back. Denver was the first opponent with time to digest the Lakers' system and was able to expose it at times--though the Lakers clamped down during their fourth-quarter run to seize control of the game.

Portland in fact played right into the Lakers' hands by getting little player or ball movement. The best way to beat the Lakers is to create as much penetration as possible, draw the help defender and then begin moving the ball. Teams can have success by sending their big man on the weak side immediately to the basket, where at worst he'll be single covered by a defender who may be smaller. Again, the three is open on the weak side, though teams must avoid the temptation to pass directly to a shooter through the lane, which invites the kinds of steal opportunities the Lakers crave.

While expecting the Lakers to post the league's best defense all year as teams adjust might be a stretch, I believe their system can be very successful for them. The biggest reason might be a simple one: By working so much on the defense, the Lakers are committing to that end of the floor more than they have in recent seasons. Players are putting in the effort. Radmanovic, never known as a defender, did an excellent job of keeping Carmelo Anthony quiet much of the night. Granted, he had plenty of help--one of the other strengths of the trapping style is that it forces opponents to beat the Lakers with their role players more so than their stars--but Radmanovic was bodying up Anthony on the perimeter and making sure nothing he got came easily.

The other major reason is a big one literally--Bynum. Even if he did not possess a budding post-up game, Bynum would still be a very valuable player because of his defensive ability. Charting reveals just how much impact Bynum had against the Nuggets, forcing five-and-a-half misses without surrendering a single score. Add that to the turnovers Bynum forced and he dominated the game defensively. Bynum's quickness allows him to help and play the role of stopper while being able to recover and contest a shot attempt by a player cutting from the weak side.

Bynum's defensive weakness was also on display in this game, as he picked up five fouls and spent much of the evening on the sidelines in foul trouble. On the other hand, the combination of Bynum, Odom and Pau Gasol on the glass has helped the Lakers grab 81.6 percent of available defensive rebounds thus far, second only to the Detroit Pistons in the league. That's remarkable given that the trapping style tends to make rebounding difficult. Overall, Bynum's defensive value is evident in the early numbers--according to 82games.com, the Lakers' Defensive Rating has been 12.2 points better per 100 possessions with Bynum on the floor.

Last year, the Lakers ranked fifth in the NBA in Defensive Rating, but there was a substantial gap between them and the fourth-rated Pistons. The Lakers surely hope to climb into that elite group this season. With the return of Bynum, Jackson's commitment to the defensive end and the success of the strong-side trap, that seems like a reasonable goal. If the Lakers meet it, their offense is strong enough that they would have the best balance of any team in the league.

Kevin Pelton is an author of Basketball Prospectus. You can contact Kevin by clicking here or click here to see Kevin's other articles.