LeBron James and Anthony Davis get all the attention, but @SethPartnow says not to forget about the Lakers' role players, who have given them a big advantage in the NBA Finals.https://t.co/dP6PD3xSMU
— The Athletic L.A. (@TheAthleticLA) October 9, 2020
In other words, the Lakers are averaging over 21 open 3s per game. That is what contending with James and Davis has done to Miami’s defense. By contrast, the Lakers have been able to deny Miami the ability to get those same looks both by blanketing Robinson, who has taken only four uncontested 3s all series, but also by denying penetration elsewhere. After trying a number of different defenders and switching schemes on Butler for much of the first 3 games, Los Angeles largely committed to having Davis guard him, and stay guarding him throughout positions rather than concede the sorts of switches that allowed Butler to work against lesser defenders in Game 3.
LA’s role players have paid this off, knocking down 38.4 percent of their uncontested 3s as compared to only 32.0 percent for Miami.
The supporting contributions haven’t just been standing around and knocking down shots either. The other big edge enjoyed by the Lakers has been their offensive rebounding. While Davis was dominant in this area across the first two games with a 13.9 percent OREB%, over the series, a number of players have chipped in on this front, including Laker point guards Caruso (5.6 OREB% for the series) and Rondo (4.6 OREB%). For the sake of comparison, Michael Carter-Williams led all NBA point guards (the non-Ben Simmons division) in OREB% at 5.0 with Russell Westbrook second at 4.4 percent. So in this admittedly tiny sample, Caruso and Rondo would have been first and third on the season.
Like I’ve said over and over, the Lakers have a better bench than the Heat. Or the Effing Clippers. Finally, getting due respect.
Hope the guys play like it’s Game 7!