Two games ago, Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham made a change to his starting lineup by taking out guard D’Angelo Russell and inserting defensive-minded forward Jarred Vanderbilt.
It seemed to work on Saturday when the Lakers defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 129-120. But against the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day, they fell behind by a big margin early. Although they fought back in the third quarter to take a brief lead, they didn’t have enough left in the tank.
Los Angeles lost by 11 points, and its new starting lineup has been struggling offensively according to a number of metrics.
Lakers' new starting lineup in 18 minutes:
– 105.0 offensive rating (worse than 30th-ranked Spurs)
– 125.0 defensive rating (worse than 30th-ranked Wizards)
– -20.0 net rating (worse than 30th-ranked Spurs)
– 40.0 eFG%
– 46.8 TS%Minuscule sample size but it's been a disaster.
— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) December 26, 2023
Ham talked about what certain players need to do to help the team become more efficient on offense.
Via Lakers Nation:
“If they’re trying to play off Cam (Reddish) then step up and shoot it with confidence or eat up that space on a drive, collapse the defense once he touches the paint and try to find the open man.
“Same thing with Vando. The ball hits him, you can’t hold it and be confused, you just got to move on to the next thing whether it’s a pitch ahead to his teammates, a (dribble handoff) or if a shot goes up and they’re off of him, go hunt down and offensive rebound to get us some extra possessions. So again, it’s playing fast. Try to be in rhythm making decisions and doing things with force.”
While the Lakers are eighth in defensive rating in December, they’re 21st in offensive rating during that time. Interestingly, they’re 11th in 3-point percentage in December, yet they have often struggled to put up enough points to defeat quality teams.
It may be a challenge for Ham to find an optimal starting lineup given the lack of true two-way players on the roster.