Max Christie, the Lakers’ youngest starter, summarized the team’s defensive problems simply Wednesday morning. When the Lakers communicate and when they play with connectivity, they stop teams.
And when they don’t, well, they look like they did in the first half Wednesday night.
Playing the Miami Heat on Wednesday for the first time since Tyler Herro exposed their worst defensive tendencies earlier this season in an embarrassing loss, Herro and the Heat did it again.
It was the worst kind of failure, one where the Lakers were prepared for the challenge and so obviously overwhelmed. But as Herro hit three after three against their helpless defense, the Lakers still had one weapon they could deploy: time. It was, after all, just one half.
There was still time, and no one on the Lakers knows that better than LeBron James.
James scored seven straight points late in the fourth quarter against his former team as the Lakers redeemed themselves late and snapped a three-game losing streak with a 117-108 win.
Anthony Davis, disengaged in the first half, dove at loose balls. James, sluggish in the early two quarters, hounded the ball. Austin Reaves, saddled with foul trouble, pushed the ball toward help.
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And as the Lakers defense came to life, their offense energized. Passes crisply dissected the Heat’s zone defense, Rui Hachimura and Gabe Vincent doing damage in the gaps their ball movement created.
They were challenged pregame and didn’t respond. They were challenged again at halftime and things were different.
The Lakers talked. They connected. They performed.
Miami scored just 19 points in the third and just 23 in the fourth, the Lakers rediscovering some of the defensive snarl that had coach JJ Redick hopeful that his team could develop a defensive-first mentality — a continual work in progress.
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Pregame, the Lakers, acknowledging an obvious need for size and toughness, waived rookie guard Quincy Olivari with the intention of signing 6-foot-11, 270-pound center Trey Jemison to a two-way contract, according to sources familiar with the transaction not authorized to speak publicly.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
