It’s been the common thread from the start of the Los Angeles Lakers season until now, but it bears repeating as long as they keep it going, that they’ve won with their defense. Anthony Davis has rightfully gotten much of the credit as he openly discussed the Lakers having a more defensive mindset and challenging LeBron James to be a great defender again.
Now the defense-first rhetoric that came from Davis and head coach Frank Vogel has even trickled over to LeBron James, a player whom many thought had left his days of playing defense in the regular season behind him. Following last night’s win in San Antonio, James told reporters that he wants the Lakers to “strangle” their opponents and be the best defense in the NBA.
“We’re a defensive-minded team. That’s where we want to make our mark, that’s where we want to be the best in the league. Be able to just strangle teams in the fourth quarter… Honestly, we want to strangle them for 48 minutes, but teams are going to make runs, teams are going to make plays and we’ve got to be consistent with our game plan, and we did that tonight, especially in the fourth.”
According to Basketball-Reference, the Lakers have No. 1 defensive rating in the league while NBA.com has them ranked No. 7. But as LeBron mentioned about shutting teams down in the fourth quarter, the Lakers have unquestionably done that better than anyone with a fourth quarter defensive rating of 96.5 according to NBA.com, best in the league. When it’s been winning time, the Lakers have shut their opponents down. More than anything, that’s the reason they have the best record in the NBA.