This is too much for the titan clash. With Utah Jazz achieving 21 wins in their last 23 games and the Los Angeles Lakers wearing the crown as the current NBA champion, Wednesday’s battle between the two seemed, on paper, to be one of the most important games of the year. But with Anthony Davis dealing with a calf strain and Dennis Schroder out due to NBA health and safety protocols, the Lakers didn’t have enough firepower to face the best NBA team so far this season. Jazz ended them, 114-89.
The Lakers will see Jazz again for a two-game series in April, and by then Davis and Schroder should have been back in the lineup, but they were completely defeated in this one. No Laker scored up to 20 points. Ironically, no Utah players either. The difference is that the Lakers had only two players, LeBron James and Montrezl Harrell, reaching double digits. Utah had six. His balanced attack was too much for the Lakers, who depend heavily on a superstar who did not play. This is one of the main conclusions of Utah’s victory. Here are a few others.
1. Can the Lakers increase their defense against Utah falls?
Jazz plays a defense based on highly conservative fall coverage. It makes sense. Rudy Gobert is the best rim guard in the NBA, so they created a scheme to keep him close to the basket. He is usually the only defender close to the basket, because Utah tries to take advantage of his rim protection schematically, making the rest of his defenders stay at home with 3-point pitchers.
This poses a problem for large men who can shoot. The Lakers had one on Wednesday at Marc Gasol. For the fourth time this season, he tried at least five points out of 3 points. Just look at Utah’s defense in some of them. In the second, Derrick Favors is practically ignoring Gasol because LeBron James is posting against a minor defender.
Gobert does not offer any significant dispute in Gasol’s third attempt at 3 points of the night.
LeBron sets up Gasol’s fourth pick-and-roll attempt. Gobert falls to protect himself against his impulse. Another whistle.
Finally, on his fifth attempt, Gobert hangs near the nail to watch Gasol and steps forward to contest his shot.
Falling defenses have struggled in recent postseason. Utah knows this very well. James Harden and Houston’s unlimited supply of shots tortured 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 kick maker capable of punishing Jazz when they do.
Without Davis in Wednesday’s game, we had no real sense of how Jazz plans to tackle this problem. They may have to commit to their drop coverage. They may have to trap Gobert on a non-sniper perimeter player to keep him close to the basket. This will be one of the most important battlegrounds on which a Lakers-Jazz series will be fought. The closer Gobert is to the basket, the better Utah’s defense. The Lakers have to be able to push him away to win Jazz. Gasol may have finally done that at the end of the game, but by then it was too late.
2. More math problems
The Lakers go through this every time they play against an opponent. When they played with the Clippers on their opening night, the Staples Center rival tried another 11 points out of 3 and hit five more. When the Brooklyn Nets arrived in the city, it rained another 10 seconds in nine more attempts. Tonight was the worst yet. Jazz made another 14 3s in another 15 attempts.
On their way to the championship last season, the Lakers played against the team that tried 3 more points (Houston), and they played against the team that got the second highest percentage of their 3 points (Miami), but never played against one opponent who combined elite shooting with high volume. The Rockets took another 3s in the NBA, but finished 24th. This allowed the Lakers to move away from the right snipers and smother the most dangerous. Heat may have been ninth in three-point attempts, but without Goran Dragic and Bam Adebayo, they were not creating the same types of 3s that they did for most of the season.
But most contenders, with the exception of the Lakers, this season not only take an excessive amount of 3 points, but do most of them. Jazz leads the NBA in attempts and is third in the percentage of 3 points. Nets are eighth in attempts and second in percentage. This puts the Lakers at a significant disadvantage when entering each game. Most of your shots are worth two points. Most shots in the competition are worth three. They have to make a significantly higher percentage of their pitches just to keep up, and so far this season, they have been struggling to do so.
3. The silver lining
Rarely would a team lose by 25 to five, but the Lakers are in a somewhat unique position. LeBron averaged 38.5 minutes per game in his last nine games. Four of those games went into overtime. He is 36 years old. Ideally, the Lakers would probably prefer not to play with him that much, but with Davis and Schroder out, they had no choice but to trust James. Even though they wanted to be more careful with their workload, James made it clear on Monday that he didn’t want to be left out.
“I think this whole ‘LeBron narrative needs more rest’ or I should rest more or I should rest here, it has become much bigger than it really is,” James told reporters after a defeat to Washington. “I never talked about it, I don’t talk about it, I don’t believe it. We all need more rest, s —. This is a quick turnaround from last season, and we all wish we could rest more. But I’m here to work, I’m here to set my watch and be available to my teammates. “
Wednesday has become something of an appointment. Jazz surprised the Lakers, so James only had to play 28 minutes. The game was decided by the last several, so his overall effort was limited. The Lakers will have Schroder back on Friday, and that will help James manage his workload. In a perfect world, the Lakers would have just won the game, but the bright side here is that it at least gave LeBron a little breath.