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Lakers searching for right adjustments and when to make them

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As the Lakers were rolling through the final third of the NBA season, their identity complete with Rui Hachimura in the starting lineup and their offense humming, a trend was quietly developing.

The Lakers, over those 32 games with Hachimura cemented as a starter, were the second-best offense in the NBA in the first half, scoring 121.8 points per 100 possessions.

In those second halves of those game? The rating dropped to 114.9 points per 100 possessions — sixth best.

Still good — but not as good as in the first half.

Through two games in the playoffs, the differences are even more stark.

In the first halves of Game 1 and 2, the Lakers have been right at their regular-season efficiency — 121.4 points per 100 possessions. But after Denver has made its second-half adjustments, the numbers have cratered.

Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray (27) hits the game-winning basket against.
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In 48 second-half minutes in this series, the Lakers have scored only 92.2 points per 100 possessions while allowing Denver’s offense to be the most efficient in the postseason, scoring 129.5 per 100.

It’s the difference between the Lakers having an edge in the series and the 2-0 hole they’re facing ahead of Game 3 on Thursday

Coach Darvin Ham said the team’s film session Wednesday illuminated the side of the court where the Lakers have struggled — on offense — when he’s seen his team inexplicably hit the brakes.

“We talk about maintaining our pace. And not just running up and down fast, throwing up quick shots,” Ham said. “It’s just doing things with a sense of urgency, whether it’s full court and being disciplined with our running habits or in the half court, creating an advantage with our separation, running into a pick-and-roll situation, actually getting a hit. And whoever is handling the ball, really putting pressure on the paint to score or make the pass.”

The Nuggets, who had the eighth-ranked defense in the regular season, flipped their coverages in the second half Monday in Game 2, moving Nikola Jokic off of Anthony Davis and using Aaron Gordon on him. Davis scored just two points after the switch — one made basket in the final 22 minutes of action.

Ham said it’s a fine line between making sweeping in-game adjustments and sticking with the game plan that helped work so well in those first halves.

“You have to be careful. You have to understand why you failed at something,” Ham said. “It’s not just, ‘we failed, let’s scrap the whole plan and go this way.’ No. You have to understand why things went the way they went.