EL SEGUNDO — After a 5-1 road trip that ended with back-to-back victories over the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday and the Washington Wizards on Wednesday, the Lakers returned to the practice court on Friday with the focus on themselves entering the season’s final stretch.
“Just you come in and you make the focus about us,” Coach Davin Ham said after practice. “No disrespect to any of our opponents, but just some things we saw along the way on the course of the trip and some things we’ve been doing really, really well.
“Just trying to sustain the stuff we’re doing good and then trying to touch on every step of the things that we need to clean up.”
With just five games left in the regular season, including hosting the Cleveland Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves in a back-to-back set this weekend, here are five things to keep an eye on with the Lakers (44-33):
1. TWO-WAY BALANCE
After months of toggling between high-level play on either – but not both – ends of the court, the Lakers are starting to strike a better offensive/defensive balance.
Their 120.2 offensive rating (points scored per 100 possessions) and 115.5 defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) in March ranked fourth and 18th for the month, according to Cleaning The Glass. It’s the closest the Lakers have gotten to rating at least average on both ends of the floor – a necessary recipe to be a threat in the play-in tournament, let alone the playoffs.
Over their last nine games, the Lakers have been sixth in offense (119.8) and fifth in defense (109.3). The quality of opponents dipped during this recent stretch, but the Lakers have started to round into form.
2. VANDERBILT’S STATUS
Forward Jarred Vanderbilt, who has been sidelined since early February because of a sprained right midfoot injury that he suffered in the Lakers’ Feb. 1 road win against the Boston Celtics, is expected to be reevaluated early next week.
He’s played just 29 games this season after missing the first seven weeks because of a left heel injury.
But even with the Lakers trending upward over the last couple of months, it’s clear they’ve missed his presence, especially defensively and as a rebounder.
“I hope it turns out well,” Ham said of Vanderbilt’s expected reevaluation. “The thing I will say is just his workouts have been very positive. The results of them, how he’s been feeling coming out of them, it’s been really positive.”
Ham said Vanderbilt went through an individual workout on Friday and “wasn’t involved in any of the team stuff.”
3. STANDINGS WATCH
Despite winning eight of their past nine games, and 20 of their last 28 dating to Feb. 1, the Lakers haven’t been able to ascend higher than ninth place in the Western Conference standings.
They entered Friday one game behind the eighth-place Sacramento Kings and 1½ games behind the New Orleans Pelicans and Phoenix Suns, who were tied for the sixth and seventh spots.
“Every game is going to be important,” forward Rui Hachimura said. “We can’t lose one game. It’s one at a time but I think we have five games left? So we’re trying to get all of them and we’ll see how that goes. We’re in a good position right now, so we just got to keep going.”
4. OFFENSIVE SETS
The Lakers have used the season’s final stretch to incorporate or reintroduce offensive sets from earlier in the season.
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The success of the sets will be monitored, especially for a potential postseason playbook.
“You look at the trends, you look at what’s been successful, you look at the numbers that are provided to you and the success rate of it, and the combination of players,” Ham said. “And you try to expose that for the better and greater good of the team. So that’s all it’s been, just looking at different combinations, two-man games, three-man games, certain lineups that have been high on the plus-minus side.
“It’s been great. It’s just a lot of stuff we have already in our package. It’s just a matter of exploring it.”
CAVALIERS AT LAKERS
When: Saturday, 12:30 p.m.
Where: Crypto.com Arena
TV/radio: Spectrum Sports Net/710 AM