ike Trudell
@LakersReporter
Since giving up 130 points at Orlando, the Lakers beat Miami 113-97, Cleveland 109-105 and Utah 90-83, allowing an average of 95 points. Their next opponent is Orlando, at home on Sunday; the Magic should have L.A.’s defensive attention.
Buoyed by this strong run on the defensive end, albeit against lower ranked offenses, LAL have improved to 11th overall in defensive efficiency. [They’re 9th on offense]Mike Trudell added,
@forumbluegold
Cleaning the Glass stats (which exclude garbage time and end of quarter heaves) have the Lakers 9th in Offense and 11th in Defense on the season. That's the profile of a playoff team...
@forumbluegold
Also per cleaning the glass, the Lakers have the 4th best half-court defense in the league allowing 89.1 points per 100 half-court possessions.
The Lakers are one of 5 teams in the league with both a winning record at home AND on the road, and one of 2 teams in the Western Conference with that distinction.
The others are:
Toronto
Milwaukee
Indiana
OKC
They are also tied with San Antonio and Memphis for most wins against Western Conference teams,and are one game out of the #1 seed in the West.
Maybe Luke knows more than we thought, once he was given what MAgic/PElinka forgot this summer (Tyson)
