Great article on Lakers D…
True Hoop: Their D has been praised all year by scouts and experts. Right now they’re sixth in the NBA in defensive efficiency, and first in offense. When you watch, you can often see that it is good. And being first in team efficiency rankings, and high in another, is usually enough to win a championship. (Cleveland is fourth in offense and third in defense at the moment. Boston is first in defense and fifth in offense — last year’s title winning team was first in defense and ninth in offense.)
I bring this up because how well the Lakers play defense could well determine who wins this year’s NBA title. Here’s Friedman, quoting Cleamons, who sounds like he thinks the Lakers could get better at playing defense:
“The only thing we’re doing is what a lot of teams have decided to do: basically, playing a man to man defense that is actually a zone; we’re sending an extra defender over in situations that we feel threatened. There’s no big secret about it; that’s what we’re trying to do: give more help when we can and we’ve been fortunate thus far.”
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