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4 Defensive Surprises the Los Angeles Lakers Could Unleash During Playoffs!

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Nothing can change the dynamic and direction of an NBA playoff series like a savvy head coach surprising the opposing team by making an unexpected defensive move that disrupts their team and superstar player’s offense.

Here are four surprise defensive moves head coach Frank Vogel could be unleash on unprepared Lakers’ playoff opponents, like the Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Clippers, and Milwaukee Bucks:

1. Double Team Opposing Superstar.

While doubling superstars won’t qualify as a surprise since the Lakers have already used the tactic against the Blazers’ Damian Lillard and the Rockets’ James Harden, it will still be a bread-and-butter playoff defensive move. Designed to force opposing superstars to give up the ball and to disrupt their rhythm, teams will usually mix up double teaming with straight man-to-man defense to prevent offenses from anticipating what’s coming.

One wrinkle the Lakers might consider instead of playing man-to-man behind the double team is deploying a 3-man matchup zone where a center protects the rim while a pair of wings prevent high percentage corner threes

2. Play Occasional Matchup Zone.

Occasionally switching from man-to-man to a matchup zone defense to break the rhythm of the opposing team’s offenses has always been a savvy playoff strategy as most teams need a few possessions to adjust to a zone. Mixing matchup zones, man-to-man defenses, and trapping double teams could be the perfect defensive formula to confuse offenses,especially against playoff teams heavily reliant upon scoring from a superstar.

Rather than play more traditional 1–2–2 or 3–2 zones, the Lakers should consider playing a 2–3 defense designed to force teams to shoot mid-range twos and above-the-break threes rather than easy-to-make corner threes.

3. Box-and-One Opposing Superstar.

The Lakers could also take a page out of Raptor Nick Nurse’s playbook and run a box-and-one defense against the opposing team’s superstar like Toronto did against the Warriors’ Steph Curry in last season’s NBA Finals. Traditionally, a box-and-one usually is comprised of one defender covering the opposing team’s superstar 1-on-1 backed by a four player zone defense with a second player doubling the superstar when he gets into his zone.

The big advantage of the box-and-one is that teams never practice against it because nobody ever plays it. While it’s a gimmick defense, it’s another look the Laker could throw to confuse opposing defenses and superstars,

4. Kuzma Defend Opposing Superstar.

The NBA is a matchup league and the Lakers will need a primary defender for each of the superstars whom they will face in their championship quest. What they lacked during the regular season was a big elite wing defender. The dramatic defensive improvement of Kyle Kuzma in the bubble has raised hope they now have a quality defender who can hold his own with bigger wing scorers like Kawhi Leonard, Dame Lillard, and James Harden.

While Kuma has a long way to go to be an elite defender, he has the size, length, speed, quickness, and athleticism to bother top-tier wing scorers like Lillard and Harden and gives the Lakers another big defensive weapon.

Playoff series are a totally different challenge than one-off regular season games because teams have time to focus on their opponent’s weaknesses during multiple games and to surprise them with unexpected moves. Look for the Lakers to strategically deploy combinations of man-to-man, double teams, zone sets, and box-and-one defenses to confuse and disrupt opposing offenses and try to slow down and control opposing superstars.

Having a collection of defensive adjustments like these four moves could give Frank Vogel and the Lakers an edge that could help them navigate an extremely tough and arduous road to their 17th NBA championship.

5 Things: And So It Begins…

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Honestly, that’s about what I expected. The real issue would have been if it took more than handful of games to clinch. Like if the clinching game had come down to the wire. It did not. While it may not mean much, it does mean something.

We go as far as they take us.
  1. The length of this journey depends on one thing and one thing only. OK, two things. LeBron James and Anthony Davis. We go where they go. ALl of the X-factor, new guy, young guy, which center, style of play doesn’t really matter. If there’s a line up that has AD, LBJ and pick yourself three players that is knocking out of the park in the playoffs we will be going with those guys in crucial moments and to end the game. Could be any number of guys who had any number of roles up until this point. Doesn’t matter what you did before. It matters what you do now.
  2. Spacing and flow. These will be big issues for us, especially if we have games where we struggle with the three ball as much as we have in more than few games. Again, this comes down to who else is hitting them. Danny Green discovers his true self? Dope, you’re getting paid the money to be 3rd fiddle but haven’t really occupied the seat thus season, be wonderful to have our first chair fiddler for the big dance. Kyle Kuzma? Awesome, way to take concrete steps in cementing the notion that of all the young Lakers traded away you were the one that had what it takes to contribute to a championship culture. Quinn Cook? My man, I had high hopes for you all season and if you turn it on when it matters most that’s fine by me. Dion Waiters? Sweet, do all you can to take control of your narrative back. J.R. SMith? Way to prove you weren’t ready for the retirement rocker. Alex Caruso? Great, that means we have a solid 2-way player on our hands. THT, radical. That would be great for him, great for the Laker G-League team and another feather in the cap for our scouting department. You get the picture. However it breaks that results in W’s.
  3. Frank has to do better. Not thrilled with Bubble Frank as much as I was pre-COVID Frank. It’s duly noted that this was, largely, an experimental slate of games but I still didn’t much care for the experiment. I think he has the chops, he has the pulse of the team, and that when his key guys are healthy he can fashion a very efficient NBA defense. If James is healthy and enough other guys hit shots his offense looks great. When anything above is slightly off-kilter, or we miss an an abysmal number of free throws, we look like a pretty mediocre team. Here’s hoping there are some new looks we see in the playoffs.
  4. JaVight McHoward. We’re going to need them. I can see a reduced role against the Rockets. After that we’re going to need one of those 2 to show up in every single series. It makes AD better when they play well, gives LeBron an easy lane to get assist of lobs and rim-rolls, and it improves our spacing for drive and kicks. In a lot of ways you can trace many of our Bubble struggles back to the struggles of both players. Dwight looked like he was coming on late, which is good, but our first unit functions better when JaVale is contributing and he simply hasn’t. If that means we try switching the role of the bigs I, for one, am down. Whatever needs be done.
  5. Stay healthy. Honestly, outside of Rondo, we’ve been pretty fortunate when it comes to the injury bug and we that luck to hold for 16 more wins and whatever number of games it takes to get there. LeBron resting his groin wasn’t great news but let’s not forget the code teams need to speak in when it comes to load management. The Lakers are going to need a healthy LeBron and AD to go anywhere. Those 2 are going to need the best versions of the supporting cast to get there. We need as many guys ready to contribute as we can suit up.

    At any rate, it’s here! The first Laker playoff run in a damned long time and I’m pumped. Apocalypse or no, tin-pot dictator threatening to break the country, whatever planet Earth throws at us? Whatever…we’ll deal with that later because we got NBA playoffs before November! Kidding aside, we need all of you Lakerholics, too. So stay safe, be well and let’s get this one together…apart…from home…in Orlando!

Go Lakers!