Twenty games into the 2017-18 season, the Lakers sit at 8-12, which has them a
single game out of the eighth playoff spot (Utah, 9-11). That feels a bit worse,
though, since they’re about to hit the roughest patch of the season, with Golden
State on the schedule three times in the next 10 games, not to mention Houston
(twice) and Cleveland.
Sure, Luke Walton and his coaches may feel like they “could” or “should” be at
.500, having lost close games in which they held late fourth-quarter leads at
Portland in early November, or at the Clippers on Monday. Of course, you “could”
have been in the NBA if you one foot taller, right? (Or is that just me?)
Part of why the Lakers struggled in crunch time in those games is because of
their inexperience. Not only are they playing a ton of young guys – three
rookies and 20-year-old Brandon Ingram are key rotation pieces – but they’ve
rarely been in games close enough to figure out what they want to do and how
they want to do it.
Case in point: out of 20 games, only three final scores have been under a
five-point margin (Oct. 20 @ PHX, 132-130; Oct. 25 vs. WAS, 102-99; Nov. 2 @
POR, 113-110). As such, it’s little surprise that the Lakers looked disjointed
last night in crunch time.
To get a better sense of where the Lakers are, overall, 20 games into the
season, we took a look at where they rank compared to the rest of the NBA on
both ends of the spectrum, and had Joey Ramirez offer an individual advanced
stat for each player currently in the rotation.
TEAM RANKINGS THE GOOD 1st) Points in the Paint: 54.6 1st) Opponent 3-Point
Percentage: 32.6% 1st) Contested Shots: 71.3 2nd) Fastbreak Points: 15.2 3rd)
Blocks: 5.9 4th) Bench Points Per Game: 41.1 6th) Defensive Efficiency: 101.6
7th) Second Quarter Points Per Game: 28.8 12th) Assists: 22.8 12th) Steals: 8.2
*The Lakers are actually fourth in total rebounds per game, but rebound rate
reflects the number of available rebounds collected.
KCP intercepts the pass and slams it home at the other end #LakeShow(:
@SpectrumSN / @spectdeportes / ESPN) pic.twitter.com/ZF71p4cv3u
Kuzma spins through the lane and finishes with contact #LakeShow (: @SpectrumSN,
@spectdeportes, NBA TV) pic.twitter.com/Xs3jKTuZsO
Josh Hart flies down the baseline and slams home the rebound! #LakeShow (:
@SpectrumSN, @spectdeportes, NBA TV) pic.twitter.com/s6cPj296jw
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