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TORONTO — At about the one-quarter mark of their season, the Lakers sit second in the Western Conference with a 15-5 record. The 61-win pace would be the team’s best year since 2008-09, but the Lakers aren’t satisfied yet.
“There’s a lot of slices of pizza left in the box that we can still get after,” coach JJ Redick said.
Here are four takeaways from the first 20 games of the season as the Lakers begin a three-game trip Thursday in Toronto:
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Good vibes
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Of the things Redick likes most about his team, the first compliments have little to do with the on-court product.
“The guys have bought in,” Redick said. “They get along, and they root for each other, and it’s not fake.”
The relationships start from the top as the budding bromance between Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves has gone viral enough to warrant fascination even in Slovenia, where a reporter came from to ask Reaves whether he had plans to visit Doncic’s home country. Reaves’ and Doncic’s love-hate relationship has spread to the rest of the team, as center Deandre Ayton uses the playful trash talk from his teammates to get him going before games.
“Just letting me be me,” Ayton said of how his teammates have welcomed him since he signed with the Lakers as a major free-agent acquisition this offseason. “… They used to just talk [trash] to me before the game just to get me riled up and to where I’m riled up myself.”
Redick has preached the importance of a player-led team and empowered his players to connect and communicate with each other on and off the court. Getting to know teammates and coaches through slideshow presentations sounded like a gimmick, but then players including Reaves noted how easy it felt to connect as a group despite having so many new pieces. Redick praised his players’ ability to problem solve in real time, and it shows up in the team’s 6-0 record in games that are within five points in the final five minutes.
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Bad turnovers
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With the highest scoring duo in the NBA, it’s no surprise the Lakers are one of the best offenses in the league.
Doncic, who will miss Thursday’s game for personal reasons, leads the league with 35.3 points per game. Reaves, who is setting himself up for a hefty pay day this offseason, is averaging a career-best 28.1 points and 6.6 assists per game. The Lakers are first in field goal percentage (51.3%) and rank eighth in offensive rating, averaging 118.3 points per 100 possessions.
The most glaring deficiency is turnovers, where the Lakers rank last in turnover percentage (16.2%).
They had 22 turnovers against the Phoenix Suns on Monday, the first game of what should be a revealing stretch of games.
The Lakers weren’t punished for their lackadaisical play during their seven-game winning streak against teams with losing records. But the Suns, who lead the league in steals, had no problem turning Doncic’s full-court prayer passes into transition buckets.
The Toronto Raptors will be an even bigger challenge. The Raptors are fifth in the NBA in defensive rating and third in deflections, ahead of the fourth-ranked Suns.
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Middling defense
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Players have said that when the Lakers are at their best, it’s because their defense is clicking. Those moments have come only in spurts.
The Lakers are 18th in defensive rating and 24th in opponent effective field goal percentage.
But Redick is encouraged by the team’s defensive activity and 17.8 deflections per game, which rank 15th in the league. Last year, the Lakers averaged 15.2 deflections per game. The improvement is the product of key offseason additions such as former defensive player of the year Marcus Smart and the rangy 6-foot-7 Jake LaRavia, but even Doncic has stepped up his defensive game.
Always quietly skilled at getting deflections, Doncic is drawing 0.38 charges per game after averaging just 0.07 last year. The Lakers lead the league with one charge drawn per game.
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Trust the process
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The Lakers have jumped ahead of many of their Western Conference rivals in the standings despite being without LeBron James for most of the season. Integrating him back will almost result in a new-look team.
James has only played in five games, missing the first 14 games because of sciatica and one more because of left foot injury management. He’s averaging 15.2 points and 7.2 assists, taking a passive role in the offense as he continues to build up his conditioning.
The Lakers’ Big 3 of James, Doncic and Reaves has dazzled in moments. They combined for 99 points in a blowout win over the Clippers, but have only been on the court together for 91 total minutes.
Although Redick is pleased with the team’s results after 20 games, he hasn’t always been content with the process it took to get there. The coach who harped on building “championship habits” said the Lakers have delivered that standard in just 16 games.
“Within those 16 games, I don’t know that we’ve had a complete game yet,” Redick said. “So that’s the North Star: is being able to do what we’re supposed to do for an entire game, and we’re not there yet.”
The post ‘A lot of slices of pizza left’: Where the Lakers stand after 20 games appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
