LQOTD: Off Ball Movement or D Intensity?

If you've watched the Lakers the last couple of games, you've noticed an increased level of activity on D and a heck of a lot more off ball movement on O.

Which has been more crucial to our "recent success"?

ABOUT TIME.

Shot making! Pau is not fumbling passes away and hes converting a high amount of shots in the paint. Also Earl Clark fits better with the starters than Pau does.

The D intensity is a result of everybody moving and touching the ball ( i.e being more involved in the game) which is mostly a result of going from a crappy and not roster suited high PNR offense to a post oriented offense .

Simple as that

Off-ball movement

they did a lot more "inefficient" Post playing inside out basketball

Responsible floor balance offensively when shots went up so that they could force the game to more half court

Intensity on D playing at a better pace allowing themselves to load up defensively because of the above point

These last 2 games was basically MDA eating a hole lot of crow..........

If Pringles stays out of the way with his "genius" this team might actually get on a role here and gain an identity.

Gasol sure looked better in the post didn't he

The guy can still play if he is given a role he can be successful in........ if he takes this 6th man role and roles with it this team all of a sudden will be a team no one wants to see as a 7 or 8 seed.

That's a huge, HUGE if with ego-maniac as coach though.....he's a stubborn ..... we'll see I guess

Gasol looked good last game, but he wasn't in the post very much.

He took four FGs in the paint.

Also, I have no idea how D'Antoni can still be called stubborn or ego-maniacal. He has changed rotations, offensive sets, starters, plays, in order to get things going.

trodgers wrote:Gasol looked good last game, but he wasn't in the post very much.

He took four FGs in the paint.

Also, I have no idea how D'Antoni can still be called stubborn or ego-maniacal. He has changed rotations, offensive sets, starters, plays, in order to get things going.

It's the philosophy of inside out basketball and the floor balance offensively when shots went up that I saw as a huge step for MDA.......... never saw it in Phx, got him canned in NY not being a little more floor balanced but these last 2 games? it was night and day if you pay attention to the floor balance went shots were going up............

Floor balance offensively is what allows a team to defend the transition forcing the tempo this team needs to play with........... IMO it was always the key and based on MDAs previous stops I didn't know if he had it in him to acknowledge it.

When you say a player plays within the post you are not just relegated to the paint or just down low...... it's being within 1 foot of the key at any point of it..... high post, mid post, low post ...... Gasol spent a lot of time in the high post rather than setting up at the top of the half circle or worse the 3 pnt line like MDA was doing way, way too much...... what I'm talking about can't just be justified in some shot chart stats...... too much of that goes on these days.

Definitely defensive intensity.

Our offense wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. That part of the game was enough for us to win behind, but our defense had been atrocious.

Between the two, it's defense that's been more important to our success. But which came first? More fluid and workable offense or defensive intensity?

(i still say defensive intensity, just trying to get some more discussions going)

Defense.

When was the last time we committed 18 TO's and held a team to 84 points and 42FG%?

Defense--our intensity on D and rotations have been on point --but with an asterisk.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Having a balanced offense with good spacing and ball movement will put us in a better situation to get back on D.

Notice the improvement in our transition D? It's because we had good spacing on offense and kept the floor spread which put us in a better position to get back in transition.

The offensive system we're running now also led to getting more offensive rebounds.

Good offense leads to good defense. But we have definitely picked up the intensity on D and have defensive game plans.

I would rank the reasons for success thusly:

1. Defense
2. Shot making
3. Less Kobe iso
4. Movement off ball

You missed one Trodgers..... slowing the pace down. We've been deliberately slowing down on the offensive end and making perimeter passes vs. going pick and roll with action on the back side.

To me this has been the biggest contributor out there. Making the other team defend for 20 seconds rather than 12 to 14 and slowing it down for our older and injured players has given us more energy to move on offense and to turn up the intensity on defense. It's a subtle adjustment I thought was beyond MDA..... maybe the "meetings" that were held and the yelling that was reported was at him and not among the players....

Add in a couple games of decent performances from our bench as well. If the bench sucks in a game we have to overuse the starters which makes us fade at the end.

Overall the defense has looked in sync and had some effort that made OKC take more difficult shots than we've been allowing in recent games. Rotation were good to very good yesterday. When Howard left his man we actually covered for him..... a novel concept.....