Lakers coach JJ Redick knew his team was taking better care of the ball.
Whether it was a trend was something he needed to discuss with Max Wiviott, the Lakers’ coaching analyst.
“Generally speaking, if you can’t catch it with the eye test, Wiv has a good answer,” Redick said. “Sometimes, when I think my eyes are correct, I’ll ask him a question, ‘Hey, can you see what’s this trend here? I feel like this is a trend. Is it a trend?’ Sometimes he says yes, sometimes he says no. So I don’t have a good answer for that.”
But the numbers are undeniable: The Lakers have gone from one of the NBA’s worst teams with ball security to one of the best entering Saturday’s prime-time matchup against the Nuggets at Crypto.com Arena.
The Lakers entered the All-Star break No. 23 in turnover percentage, according to Cleaning The Glass, with 15.3% of their offensive possessions ending in a giveaway.
But in the 12 games since the break entering Saturday, their turnover percentage dropped to 12.2 for the league’s third-best mark during that stretch.
It’s one of the biggest reasons, in addition to improved 3-point shooting, for their offense taking a step from borderline top 10 in offensive rating before the break (117.5) to inside of the top five post-break (122.2).
The Lakers have been one of the league’s most efficient scoring teams the entire season.
But one of their issues before the break is they didn’t take a lot of shots.
The Lakers’ 83.6 field-goal attempts per game entering the break was the league’s second-fewest mark — a number suppressed by their high free-throw rate but also their lack of offensive rebounding and ball security.
They still aren’t a good offensive rebounding team, but they entered Saturday averaging 86.8 shots per game since the break — which is still a low figure but more than three extra shots they were getting before the break.
“The word ‘physicality’ gets thrown around the defensive end, and it is just as important offensively, in terms of screening and being strong with the basketball and working to get open,” Redick said. “That’s a big piece of it.”
The record books
With his career-high-tying nine 3-pointers in Thursday’s win over the Bulls, Lakers star Luka Doncic surpassed teammate Austin Reaves for the second-most 3s made in a season.
Doncic entered Saturday with 208 made 3s on a league-high 567 attempts across 54 games.
Reaves made 200 3s last season.
D’Angelo Russell set the franchise record for most made 3s in a season in 2023-24, when he made 226.
Doncic is on pace to surpass Russell’s record in the next four to six games he plays.
The Slovenian star guard entered Saturday shooting 39.7% on 3s on a league-high 10.5 attempts per game since Dec. 25.
Status update
Backup center Jaxson Hayes was upgraded to available for Saturday’s game after sitting out of Thursday’s win because of back soreness.
Starting guard Marcus Smart was also available after being sidelined for the matchup against the Bulls because of a hip contusion.
Maxi Kleber was the lone Laker unavailable because of injury. He missed his sixth game in the last seven because of a back injury that’s expected to sideline him for a “little bit,” Redick said.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
