So much for the clash of the titans. While the Utah Jazz have risen to 21 wins in their last 23 games and the Los Angeles Lakers have been crowned defending NBA champions, the battle between the two on Wednesday looked like one of the marquee pieces of the year. But with Anthony Davis dealing with a calf strain and Dennis Schroder due to the NBA health and safety protocols, the Lakers have not had nearly enough firepower to hang on to the NBA’s best team so far this season. The Jazz blew them out, 114-89.
The Lakers will see the Jazz again in April for a two-game series, and Davis and Schroder would then have to be in the series again, but they were completely surpassed in this series. No Laker even scored 20 points. Ironically, there was also no Utah player. The difference is that the Lakers had only two players, LeBron James and Montrezl Harrell, who reached double figures. Utah had six. Their balanced attack was too much for the Lakers, who rely heavily on a superstar who did not play. This is one of the most important take-away from the victory of Utah. Here are a few others.
1. Can the Lakers stretch Utah’s fall defense?
The Jazz play an extremely conservative defense based on drop coverage. It makes sense. Rudy Gobert is the best edge protector of the NBA, which is why they devised a plan to keep him close to the basket. He is often the only defender near the basket, as Utah tries to schematically utilize its skin protection by leaving the rest of its defenders at home on 3-point shooters.
This poses something of a problem against big men who can shoot. The Lakers had one in Marc Gasol on Wednesday. For only the fourth time this season, he has tried at least five three-pointers. Just look at Utah’s defense on some of it. Second, Derrick Favors ignores Gasol virtually because LeBron takes James up against a smaller defender.
Gobert offers no meaningful game on Gasol’s third three-point effort of the night.
LeBron appoints Gasol’s fourth attempt for selection. Gobert falls to protect against his driving force. Another swish.
Finally, during his fifth attempt, Gobert hangs near the nail to watch Gasol and act to contest his shot.
Fall defense has struggled over the past few seasons. Utah knows this well. The unrestricted shooting incident of James Harden and Houston tortured the Jazz in the playoffs, and the Jamal Murray-Nikola Jokic pick knocked them out last season. Between Gasol and Anthony Davis, the Lakers have great men who can pull Gobert off the basket, and in LeBron James they have a creator who can punish the Jazz if they do.
Without Davis in Wednesday’s game, we would not have had a real idea of how the Jazz intend to attack this issue. They may need to start compromising on their coverage. They might have to stick Gobert on a non-shooting player to keep him close to the basket. It’s going to be one of the main battlefields on which to fight a Lakers-Jazz series. The closer Gobert is to the basket, the better the Utah defense. The Lakers need to be able to pull him out to beat the Jazz. Gasol may have finally done it by the end of this match, but then it was too late.
2. More math problems
The Lakers go through it every time they play against a contender. When they played Clippers on opening night, their Staples Center rival tried 11 more three-pointers and made five more. When the Brooklyn Nets entered the city, they rained another ten tries on nine more attempts. Tonight was the worst yet. The Jazz made 14 more tries with 15 more attempts.
On the way to the championship last season, the Lakers played against the team that tried the most three-pointers (Houston), and they played against the team that scored the second highest percentage of its three-pointers (Miami), but it never did played against an opponent who paired elite shooting with high volume. The Rockets scored the most 3s in the NBA, but they scored No. 24 in attempts. This enabled the Lakers to descend from the right shooters and stifle the more dangerous ones. The Heat may have been ninth in three-point attempts, but without Goran Dragic and Bam Adebayo, they would not have created the same kind of 3s as most of the season.
But most candidates, aside from the Lakers, not only take an extraordinary amount of three-pointers this season, but make the most of it. The Jazz lead the NBA in efforts and are third in the three-point percentage. The Nets are eighth in effort and second in percentage. This has the Lakers a major downside in every game. Most of their shots are worth two points. Most of their competitions’ shots are worth three. They have to make a significantly higher percentage of their shots just to keep up, and so far this season they have struggled to do so.
3. The silver border
Rarely would a team lose by 25 rather than five, but the Lakers are in a somewhat unique position. LeBron has averaged 38.5 minutes per game in his last nine games. Four of the games went to overtime. He is 36 years old. Ideally, the Lakers probably would not play as much with him, but with Davis and Schroder outside, they had no choice but to rely on James. Even if they want to be more careful with his workload, James made it clear Monday that he does not want to evict.
“I think this whole story of ‘LeBron needs more rest’, or I need more rest, or I need to take time here, it’s gotten a lot bigger than it actually is,” James told reporters after a loss against Washington. “I’ve never talked about it, I’m not talking about it, I do not believe in it. We all need more rest, s —. It’s a quick turnaround from last season, and we all wish we could more rest. But I’m here to work, I’m here to turn on my watch and be available to my teammates. ‘
Wednesday turned into something of a compromise. The Jazz blew out the Lakers, so James only needs to play 28 minutes. The match was decided by the last couple, so his overall effort was limited. The Lakers will have Schroder back on Friday, and that will further help James manage his workload. In a perfect world, the Lakers would have just won the game, but the silver lining here is that it at least gave LeBron a breather.