LeBron James-Anthony Davis Lakers won their first 59 games in which they led after three quarters. If last season’s championship team led after three quarters, the game was functionally over. Not once did they lose that leadership, and that remarkable reliability came mainly from their defensive excellence.
No team allowed fewer points for 100 possessions in the fourth quarter (100.8) than the Lakers last season. They were fourth in the clutch defense before the Orlando bubble and improved the clutch settings when the playoffs arrived. Winning the Lakers at the end of the games was almost impossible because scoring at the Lakers at the end of the games was almost impossible.
On Monday, the Portland Trail Blazers beat their 59-game winning streak with an advantage in the third quarter. After falling behind by 85-84 in three quarters, they overcame the Lakers by 31-22 in the fourth to leave the Staples Center with a 115-107 victory that last year’s list would never have allowed. But last year’s list did not include Montrezl Harrell.
The Lakers took a calculated risk at Harrell. By paying him only the mid-level exception, they managed to secure a player who, in a vacuum, was far more valuable than they should have access to. They took him away from rival Clippers and, assuming they were confident that Marc Gasol was looking for the bare minimum, they knew they had a more traditional pivot coming to make up for their shortcomings. Harrell played very well in his first three games as Laker. Your score, offensive rebounds and energy are genuine assets.
But these assets are best applied to bench formations that he can physically handle. Asking him to play on time puts a target on his back. This was especially true on Monday, when Frank Vogel left him on the floor for more than 15 consecutive minutes of play. When Portland realized how exploitable he was in defense, he was too tired to fight back. That, in essence, is what the Lakers lost in this game. The Blazers hunted Harrell to extinction in pick-and-roll.
Ostensibly, the Lakers decided to make aggressive pick-and-roll coverage against Damian Lillard to prevent him from dribbling in 3 easy points. This type of trap only works if the great defender immediately chases the ball handler off the screen, disturbing him enough to allow the rest of the defense to rotate in place and perhaps force the ball handler to panic. Instead, Harrell was caught napping, not showing himself hard enough for Lillard to slow him down or backing up enough to do anything about Enes Kanter. He was in the middle of the piece, but it did not affect either end.
Harrell is a little more attentive the next time Portland pick-and-roll, but he still doesn’t come close to CJ McCollum. It leaves enough air space for McCollum to bounce the ball into Jusuf Nurkic’s pocket. LeBron James spins, but he’s just not big enough to challenge Nurkic here.
A few moves later, Portland catches him dozing. He doesn’t blitz or fall. He freezes, and when he realizes that Nurkic’s canvas is going to take Kentavious Caldwell-Pope out of the play, it’s too late for him to return to McCollum.
As things got worse, the Lakers abandoned the blitz scheme to simplify things for Harrell. This also didn’t work. When he pulls back on this move, his only resistance to Lillard’s impulse is a lazy strike that results in a foul.
Next time on the ground, Portland delivers the dagger. Another Lillard-Nurkic pick-and-roll. Harrell throws the fall cover again, but does not notice Nurkic’s leak towards the middle of the ground. Lillard gives you the ball for easy drive and layup.
By now, Vogel has seen enough. He takes Harrell out of the game and replaces him with Kyle Kuzma, but the damage is done. Portland lead by eight points, with less than two minutes left, and the Lakers’ vaunted defense in the fourth period allowed an impressive score of 134.8 points for every 100 possessions in the final game. End of the game. Blazers win.
And it was an avoidable victory on several levels. A healthy and committed Anthony Davis could have been better able to cover up Harrell in his mistakes. If Harrell had rested at some point in the 16-minute pass, he might have been better able to take on the more active defensive role that Vogel’s game plan requires. However, this ended up being a defeat for the coach, because Vogel did not put his player in the best possible position to succeed. He asked a sixth man with offensive guidance to defend one of the most dangerous moves in all of basketball, and was burned for it.
At some level, it was probably intentional. The Lakers are four games in a slogan of 72 games. They have 11 players vying for the main minutes and it is still unclear which one fits best. Home advantage does not have to be a priority when your biggest rival divides your arena. Vogel’s goal is not to win all the regular season games, but to use them to prepare for the postseason. He wanted to see how Harrell would respond defensively in times of crisis against an opponent. Your minutes from the fourth bedroom were an experience.
But it was a failed experiment. The Lakers saw firsthand what happens when they abandon their defensive identity at the end of a game. It is a mistake that they no longer need to repeat. Harrell can play a valuable role in this team. He just can’t play the specific role he was asked on Monday. When it matters, Davis or Marc Gasol must be at the center in order to maximize the defense that has made the Lakers a champion. This is the ticket to preserve the kind of advantage that the Lakers hopes to never explode again.