LOS ANGELES — With his team looking to create separation against a New Orleans Pelicans team that wouldn’t go away easily Friday night at Crypto.com Arena, Lakers coach JJ Redick leaned on the collective offense prowess of his three best players to close out the game.
And he did so by having them all directly involved in the offensive actions to keep the Pelicans off balance.
With the Lakers leading the Pelicans 106-95 with 6:30 remaining, Reaves set a pindown screen for James near the left elbow as Doncic held the ball above the 3-point arc with Jaxson Hayes and Dorian Finney-Smith spaced out in the corners.
Instead of setting a Ram screen – when a player receives an off-ball screen before setting a ball screen – James curled off Reaves’ screen back into the paint, receiving the pass from Doncic and backing down defender Keion Brooks Jr. inside the paint before making a layup.
The Lakers set up a similar alignment on their next possession, but Brooks Jr. overplayed the screen Reaves was setting for James by turning his body parallel to the baseline between James and Reaves. This gave James an opening to cut into the paint for an easy layup with the assist from Doncic to put the Lakers up 110-97.
One minute later, the Lakers went back to the offensive action, but the Pelicans were ready. The Lakers went through multiple options within the action – including Reaves coming off a Hayes exit screen and a James-to-Reaves dribble handoff – before Reaves swung the ball back to Doncic above the break, with Doncic finding the hole in the Pelicans’ defense.
Hayes set a step-up onball screen for Doncic, with both of their defenders staying close to Doncic and Reaves’ defender (Brooks Jr.) peeling into the paint to take away Hayes’ dive to the rim, leaving Reaves wide open above the 3-point line. Doncic looked at Reaves, acting like he was going to pass in his direction, momentarily drawing Brooks Jr. closer to Reaves before passing to Hayes wide open inside the paint for a dunk.
Three halfcourt possessions, three scores at the basket, increasing the Lakers’ lead from nine to 13 with just under five minutes left in a game they won 124-108.
“That’s how you have to walk a game down up nine, six minutes to go,” Redick said. “Just methodical, exhausting everything.”
Even though the stretch came against a Pelicans team that lost 11 of its previous 16 games, the Lakers were encouraged by how they saw their three best players operating alongside one another.
Especially after the recent dialogue surrounding them.
The Lakers entered Friday losing the minutes Doncic, James and Reaves were on the floor together, being outscored by 24 points in the 320 minutes they played with each other in 16 games.
They were being outscored by 3.5 points per 100 possessions when lineups featuring Doncic, James and Reaves were on the floor together entering Friday – well below the expectation for a team looking to contend for a championship when its three best players are on the court.
But Friday was another positive step of the Lakers understanding how to maximize the minutes Doncic, James and Reaves played.
“Obviously, like we talk about, it’s still a work in progress,” Doncic said. “We haven’t had many practices together, but I think we’re getting more comfortable, like you saw [on Friday]. It’s getting better.”
The Lakers won the 22 minutes the star trio was on the floor against the Pelicans by two. In 27 minutes during Thursday’s loss to the Golden State Warriors, the Lakers won the minutes Doncic, James and Reaves were on the floor together by five. They outscored the Houston Rockets by 10 points in the 23 minutes that lineups featuring the trio were on the court together.
The Lakers won the 72 minutes with their star trio on the floor together by 17 points in their last three games – 11.4 points per 100 possessions – after losing the previous 270 minutes by 39 points – being outscored by 6.7 points per 100 possessions – in their first 14 games together.
“There’s a lot of room to grow,” Redick said. “Particularly just with understanding what works for us. That’s the biggest thing – what works for us.”
The Lakers have a 119.6 offensive rating (points scored per 100 possessions) when Doncic, James and Reaves are on the floor together, which ranks in the 84th percentile among all lineups that have played at least 100 possessions according to Cleaning The Glass.
But their defense – specifically a 121.6 defensive rating – has been the reason they’ve lost the minutes Doncic, James and Reaves are on the court together.
“I don’t make a ton of it,” Redick said earlier in the week when asked about the team losing the minutes the star trio shared the floor. “I don’t think the expectation, at least internally for us, was we’re going to be the 2016-2017 Warriors or this year’s Oklahoma City Thunder. We didn’t expect that. So the disjointedness of an in-season trade is there.
“Those guys are committed to making it work with each other when they’re on the court. They’re committed to making it work when there are two of them are on the court or one of them is on the court. It’s a work in progress. We all knew that was gonna be the case.”
LAKERS AT OKLAHOMA CITY
When: 12:30 p.m. PT Sunday
Where: Paycom Center, Oklahoma City
TV/radio: NBA TV, Spectrum SportsNet/710 AM
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