ATLANTA — After the Lakers’ loss to the Houston Rockets on Monday, there was significant talk in the team’s locker room at Toyota Center as to why there’s been a defensive slide over the last 1½ months.
Forward Rui Hachimura offered his thoughts.
“We [are] not connected,” Hachimura said. “Everybody. Talk. Communication. We [are] not helping each other. We help, but other guys not helping. That kind of thing. One-on-one defense too. Just get by, just beat too easily. We just got to take the responsibility.”
LeBron James appeared to agree with Hachimura, while seemingly mentioning that understanding needs to be had first before communication can.
“In order to communicate, you got to know what we’re doing out on the floor, first of all,” James said “And when you make adjustments throughout a game, you got to know when the adjustments are made so everybody is on the same page. Everybody needs to be in tune with what we’re doing so there’s no mishaps. And sometimes there will be mishaps, you have to cover for one another.
“The game, it’s not just X’s and O’s. It’s also being able to do things on the fly as well when things break down or the game presents different challenges.”
The Lakers clearly missed Anthony Davis’ presence on the defensive end on Tuesday.
“You’ve got to have more communication through the course of the possession, because you’re gonna have a little slippage,” James said. “When A.D. is out there, he protects us on that third line of defense. When he’s not out there, there has to be constant communication.”
Speaking before his team’s 138-122 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night at State Farm Arena, the second night of a road back-to-back, Lakers coach Darvin Ham made it clear he felt that there’s an understanding within the players what’s being asked of them defensively.
“Myself, my coaches, the film work we put in, we show all of that,” Ham said. “All of that. Shifts in activity, you know, on the ball. We talk about our different coverages, whether we’re switching, whether we’re in center field, whether big is back, up, our zone. We show all of that.
“It’s few and far between here recently, but whenever we’re able to get on the floor, we work on our breakdowns and how we want to guard different things.”
Ham pointed to the Lakers’ not consistently executing a “next-play mentality” as a reason why the communication issues might be present.
“You’d be surprised how moving on to the next play helps your communication, helps your positioning, puts you in a position to get a stop defensively,” he said. “This game is being played so fast now, from guards pushing it up quickly, guys getting out sprinting for 3s, dunks, lobs, what have you. Those two, three, four seconds where you just, you’re worried about a call that you didn’t get or you’re disappointed about a shot you normally make and didn’t make, a live-ball turnover. In today’s NBA, if you can’t get to the next play, it’s gonna cost you and cost you repeatedly.
“We’ve shown it in film, we’ve shown both sides of it. Us, turning, walking, having chatter back and forth with the officials. Just hanging our heads because again, we’re missing a shot we normally make and disappointing ourselves. Gotta get on to the next play. Gotta have a short memory, good, bad and different.”
WOOD’S POST
About 30 minutes before the Lakers and Hawks tipped off, Lakers forward Christian Wood posted “lol” on his X account (formerly known as Twitter), leading to speculation on social media that he wasn’t happy about not starting in place of Anthony Davis.
Davis wasn’t available against the Hawks because of a hip spasm, with Jaxson Woods starting in his place.
Wood said postgame that his post was “definitely not basketball-related.”
“I meant to quote something, but I didn’t have the quote,” Wood explained. “I thought I did and I just pressed send and I couldn’t check my phone before because we have to go out but it was an accident. So I didn’t mean … I looked at it just now. I didn’t mean … it came off a certain type of way. I didn’t mean it that way.”
Before Wood spoke, Ham addressed Wood’s post.
“I’m not on social media,” Ham said. “I don’t have everybody running and grabbing hold of stuff like that and throwing it at me unless it’s presented to me in this forum. That said, there [are] a lot of things he and all of us can do better. He was solid overall [Tuesday]. Tried to help give us a chance. And we decided to keep him in his role and where he’s been for some time, and give Jax the opportunity to come out with the energy he played with [Monday] night. Give him a chance to come out and try to help us in that manner.
“We’re constantly looking for balance with our lineup. It’s not a popularity contest. We’re looking to mix and match our players that will be most effective in helping us get a win.”
Wood finished with nine points, eight rebounds and two assists in 22 minutes against the Hawks.
When asked whether he looks at himself and says ‘I need to do more’ in light of Davis’ absence, Wood responded: “I would love to do more, but you know I’ve been playing I think around 14, 15 minutes a night, 20, 22 minutes tonight. So if I have the opportunity to, I would definitely try to.”
Khobi Price
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