During the Lakers’ five-game losing streak, their glaring issue has been an
inability to protect the ball.
Throughout this slide, they have committed at least 16 giveaways in each
contest, prompting coach Luke Walton to implement ball-control drills in
practice that players have joked are from back in high school.
He elaborated after Tuesday’s practice that players had to run suicides for each
turnover they committed in order to hammer the importance of maintaining
possession.
With an upcoming four-game Eastern Conference road trip approaching, Walton
hopes the added emphasis will help the Lakers water down their league-high 17.5
turnovers per game.
“Limiting our turnovers will give us the best chance as far as just one thing to
change,” Walton said. “It’s tough, especially when you go on the road, to turn
the ball over the way we’ve been doing it.
“If I had a magic wand, that would be the one thing I’d fix.”
Luke Walton shares his thoughts after today’s practice in El Segundo.
pic.twitter.com/hDP6Tkdwsr
Oddly, the Lakers have zero players among the NBA’s 25 most-frequent
turnover-committers.
Instead, it has been a case of many players contributing to the total, with four
Lakers — Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle and Kyle Kuzma — averaging
between two and three giveaways.
Ball and Ingram have seen an uptick in their turnovers recently, which makes
sense considering the ball has been in their hands more often.
Ingram has been given more freedom to attack with his dribble lately, averaging
19.1 points in his last nine games. Ball’s ability to push the pace has been
central to the team’s identity, with the Lakers averaging the second-most
fast-break points (15.3).
His production has also far out-weighed his turnovers, as he is seventh in the
NBA in assists (7.0) and allows the second-fewest takeaways (2.7) of anyone in
the top 10.
But while Ball and the Lakers often thrive on fast-breaks, defenses have also
shown capable of hunting his outlet passes.
The Lakers commit a turnover on 18.1 percent of transition possessions —
second-highest in the league. Ball’s 27.9 percent turnover rate is highest among
individual players.
But as long as the players are making smart plays and not committing careless
turnovers, Walton is OK with mistakes here and there.
“The ones where they’re trying to do the right thing, push the pace and make the
extra pass for their teammates — those are the ones, for now, we’re still
willing to live with,” Walton said.
Another day of work in the books #LakeShow pic.twitter.com/XvvrLeoPZO
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