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Lakers Data Report: Thunder and Hornets Games

January 7, 2018 by Cranjis McBasketball


Hello! Welcome to this edition of the Lakers post game data report, where the basketball is bad and the numbers are worse. Today we find our Los Angeles Lakers with a body of work and remaining schedule (including rest days & injuries) that result in a 24 game win projection. Tribute to Kobe aside, that’s a really bad sign.


Lakers Offense

Thunder Game

The Lakers scored 96 points. An average team would be expected to score 117.4 points. That’s about a three touchdown difference. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Isolation

LA had a poor game against OKC in isolation. First, here’s the shot chart for their 10 isolation possessions.

And here is what happened on each of those possessions:

  1. Randle: Semi-open mid-range jump shot, 7 seconds left on shot clock, 2 points
  2. Lopez: Heavily contested mid-range jump shot, 2 seconds left, 0 points
  3. Clarkson: Open long 3-pointer vs switch, 7 seconds left, 0 points
  4. Ingram: Stripped on drive vs switch, 17 seconds left, 0 points
  5. KCP: Contested drive vs PG-13, 10 seconds left, 0 points
  6. Ingram: Pass deflected and stolen on failed drive, 12 seconds left, 0 points
  7. Ennis: Blocked at rim vs switch, 8 seconds left, 0 points
  8. Randle: Stripped going up for inside shot, 5 seconds left, 0 points
  9. Clarkson: Made drive +1 after blow by and spin move, 18 seconds left, 3 points
  10. Clarkson: Missed shot on drive vs switch, 15 seconds left, 0 points

I’d say that the fifth possession is outright unacceptable. It was from a player in the 27th percentile in isolation efficiency, was a contested shot against a great defender, and was done with plenty of time left on the shot clock to run a pick and roll or at least find a better iso matchup.

Many of the possessions yielded no points, but I suppose one can’t be too critical of the team attacking switches on four of the ten isolations. Getting to the rim on many of the possessions is also something that would expect to produce more points. The isolation efficiency is disappointing, but most of the possessions were either a late shot clock shot or attacking a switch.

Pick and Roll

Between the ball handler, roll man, and pass out to spot up shots, the Lakers scored 11.4 points below the expectation from their pick and roll derived possessions. The breakdown of those possessions were 14 ball handler possessions, 9 from roll men, and 10 spot up possessions.


Hornets Game

Is shooting 0/13 on open catch and shoot half court 3-pointers good? Asking for a friend.

I can tell you that shooting 44.4% (8/18) on contested catch and shoot 3-pointers is good. The Lakers also did that. This offense is an enigma. Had LA shot just 5/13 instead of 0/13 on open shots from downtown (38%) and this is a completely different game.

Those missed open 3-pointers belonged to:

  • Ennis x3
  • Lonzo x2
  • Lopez x2
  • Hart x2
  • KCP x2
  • Clarkson
  • Brewer

Ennis has shot very poorly this season and Brewer isn’t a good 3-point shooter, but even 1/4 from those two and 3/9 from the rest of the group changes the game.


Lakers Defense

Thunder Game

*Insert more screaming here*

After reviewing film and data from the game, there’s not a lot of value I can add. LA stopped competing. It’s interesting to see the areas the Lakers did better with were ones like isolation, post defense and putbacks, areas where the individual Laker defenders were directly challenged. The areas LA struggled with most were off screen, spot up, and the pick and roll ball handler and roll man possessions, which usually require team efforts and communication.


Hornets Game

There were several positives from the most recent Laker loss. One of them was the half court defense. LA held Charlotte’s half court game to 14.4 points below the expectation.

Transition

Charlotte couldn’t be stopped in transition, but it wasn’t as discouraging as the data would indicate. The Hornets just hit pretty much every shot they took. Many were well contested. Several were defended poorly, but it had a much different feel than the Thunder game. The whole defense did.

Dwight Howard

Just for fun, here’s how Howard was offensively for the game. His season average is -0.8 points, so he was just a little worse than his usual 21st percentile output offensively. He wasn’t effective as a roll man, in iso, or posting up. Where he did his damage was on dump offs (cuts) and putbacks.

Overall, Howard’s 1.000 point per possession is nothing to scoff at. He essentially single handedly did the damage in two fo the three half court play types Charlotte scored at least a point above expectation in.


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