News Every Day | 03:26

Lakers’ growing trust leading to defensive surge

SACRAMENTO — JJ Redick, who hasn’t been shy about being honest with his thoughts as the Lakers’ coach, has publicly acknowledged the defensive limitations of his team – especially in light of their injuries.

He was also honest when asked if the Lakers’ recent defensive surge has changed what he views could be the defensive ceiling for the team.

“Yes and no,” Redick responded on Saturday ahead of the Lakers’ 103-99 road win over the Sacramento Kings. “No in the sense that…I felt coming into the year that we could be a top-10 defense.

“Month, month and a half into the season did not feel that we could be a top-10 defense. But the guys have responded.”

The Lakers’ response to being one of the league’s worst defensive teams over the first month of the season? Being of the best over the last few weeks.

After the Saturday win over the Kings, the Lakers ranked No. 8 in defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) at 108.2 over their last 11 games.

They were No. 27 in defensive rating (118.2) in their first 17 games, leaning on their offense to pull out wins.

But the script has flipped.

“We understood in order for us to be able to at least compete in every game and to win games, we can’t rely on offense all the time, and we have to buckle down on defense,” LeBron James said. I don’t know when that was, I think maybe six, seven games ago, our defense was not so good. It was that road trip when we went to Miami [on Dec. 4].

“From that moment, we just started really, sharpening our defense. Our offense is going to come. We understand that. But you can win games in this league when you defend at a high level. And we’ve been doing that over the last couple weeks.”

The Lakers, who’ve won four of their last five games entering Monday’s matchup against the Detroit Pistons at Crypto.com Arena, have had the league’s best defensive rating (99.2) over the last two weeks.

“I like where we’re trending there,” Redick said. “We executed maybe six organic veers [in Thursday’s road win over the Kings] where somebody gets blown by on a closeout and the next guy takes him. Guy who got blown by, you’re out of the play, you pick up the guy who took your man.

“That’s trust building. And we weren’t doing that stuff at the beginning of the year. So beyond just, ‘Hey, we executed our coverage, we were more physical.’ There’s stuff that you can see now where there’s real trust building on that side of the ball.”

There’s a lot of credit to go around for the Lakers’ improved defense.

Max Christie is stepping up in the starting lineup as a point-of-attack defender. Rui Hachimura is buying into his defensive assignments and providing better help defense. Anthony Davis once again provided elite defensive play as the team’s anchor.

But James has stepped up as a help defender and communicator over the last few games since his two-game absence because of left foot soreness, helping raise the defensive floor for the group.

“The most important is my voice,” James said. “I always got to make sure that my voice is always commanding and calling things out and letting guys know what things are happening behind the defense. Obviously, you have the point of attack, the guy guarding the ball and then nine times out of 10, AD is the anchor.

“So I just try to guide the rest of the guys behind the back line and let those guys know what’s going on behind them.”