Laker Defense against the elite point guards of the West

[TheHartBreakKid]

Let me start by saying a couple of things; I'm not cherry picking stats, nor am I saying that Lonzo is primarily responsible for the performance of these guards against the lakers, or that the sample size is extremely large. I'm also not saying that Lonzo has been great this year or that he's the next Jkidd or whatever. The point of this thread is to recognize how well the lakers have played defense against the allstar PG's of the west: Curry, Westbrook, and Lillard. I'm sure if i was to expand this list, there would be certain other matchups that we sturggled with, and others that we did well against...again the sample size is small. Finally, I'm not saying that Zo outplayed these guys. I'm just merely talking about the lakerdefensive performance.



The lakers played 3 games against Portland, 2 against OKC, and 1 against GS so far this year. Zo played in all these games, and while he wasn't the only one defending these point guards, he was the primary defender in each game, except the Warrior game where Rondo also guarded Curry a significant amount.


10/18- Damian Lillard - 26/6/4, with 2 threes, on 9-21 shooting - Lakers lose
11/3- Damian Lillard- 30/4/4 with 2 threes, on 10-23 shooting- Lakers win
11/14- Damian Lillard- 31/8/11 with 3 threes, on 8-23 shooting- Lakers Win
12/25- Stephan Curry- 15/2/2 with 2 threes, on 5-17 shooting- Lakers Win
1/2- Russell Westbrook- 14/16/10 with 1 three, on 3-20 shooting- Lakers lose
1/17- Russell Westbrook- 26/9/13 with 5 threes,on 7-30 shooting- lakers win


So in those games 6 games, Westbrook, Curry, and Lillard, have averaged 31.34% from the field. Whether we want to give the credit to Zo's defense, or the team defense against PG's overall....that's pretty damn impressive stuff. Obviously RW's **** games skew the % stats a little bit, but Lillard, while averaging 29 points, did so on 40% shooting.




Obviously by the end of the year, I expect these numbers, especially the perentages, to look way different. But I feel like 6 games is enough to atleast recognize that the team is doing something right against elite point guards.

[Dr Aki]

...5/17 shooting...

this triggers my ocd

[LBC SoCal]

Lonzo is a great defender, does a lot that isn't captured on the stats, especially forcing his opponent to take difficult shots. He's smart, doesn't fall for the pump fake, quick hands to strip the ball. Can guard multiple positions. When we played Detroit, Blake Griffin tried to switch so he had Lonzo on him. He held his own despite being undersized.

A lot of the Lakers players are interchangeable so they can switch on screens and still be able to defend the perimeter. A little OT but the gripe that I have in terms of defense is the Lakers give up too many offensive rebounds. A little more boxing out would be nice.

[TheHartBreakKid]

...5/17 shooting...

this triggers my ocd

I fixed it just for you sir