SACRAMENTO — The question LeBron James was asked after the Lakers’ 120-107 road loss to the Sacramento Kings wasn’t just applicable to his team, but it was relevant considering how Wednesday night’s game went.
When a team has an offensive action or set that is leading to good looks, even if they’re missing shots, how can you stay disciplined to keep trying that?
To James, who is in his 21st NBA season, moving away from actions that create what the team is looking for, even if it’s not resulting in immediate success during games, is a trend he’s noticed over the last few seasons.
“That’s pretty much our league though,” he said. “No one ever sticks to what’s working. People want to get cute and try to try new things but our league has kind of always been like that over the last few [years].
“When I came into the league, it was like if one thing was working, we’re going to milk that until you stop it. And even if you stop it, we may go back to it. But that’s just how the league is now.”
And it was also an issue for the Lakers against the Kings.
Moving away from successful offensive actions wasn’t the only or main reason the Lakers lost. They became too careless with the ball in the third quarter, turning it over six times as part of a quarter they lost 28-17.
The Kings grabbed timely offensive rebounds for second-chance points. The Lakers’ help defense and closeouts against Sacramento’s shooters were lackluster for significant stretches. Their top three scorers – James, Anthony Davis and D’Angelo Russell – also missed looks they typically make.
But they didn’t help themselves by going away from what was successful, at least for stretches.
The offensive action that produced Austin Reaves’ first 3-pointer – a pitch action into a Russell-Davis pick-and-roll with Reaves setting a screen for James on the weak side before popping out above the arc for a 3-pointer – didn’t appear to be used again after the Lakers’ first few possessions.
Rui Hachimura scored 20 points, with nine of them coming in the second quarter. He benefitted significantly from the Lakers running a James-Davis pick-and-roll that resulted in the Kings switching Domantas Sabonis onto James and Harrison Barnes onto Davis, with Davis posting up Barnes.
When the Kings would double-team Davis, Hachimura made himself available for a pass by cutting into space or being stationed in a spot where Davis could find him. He scored seven straight points for the Lakers after Davis posted up Barnes and passed out of the post, finishing the first half with 17 points on 8-for-10 shooting.
Hachimura only took one shot – a corner 3-pointer assisted by Russell – in the second half.
The Lakers tried getting Davis posted up against Barnes in the second half, but not to the same success. The weak-side actions weren’t as effective or present as they were in the first half. And they mostly went away from forcing that switch in the fourth, going to different actions – like guards screening for James, which produced a pair of James dunks and other open shots.
Russell declined to answer when asked whether the team could have done more to keep Hachimura involved offensively in the second half.
“Yeah, I’d rather not go there with it,” Russell responded. “It’s a good game for Rui.”
James added: “Obviously when a guy has it going, you always want to try to find him. But the game was – I’ll have to rewatch it and see if there were ways that we could get him the ball – but teams make adjustments too. Really good teams make adjustments. If they have guys, X-factor guys that’s got it going, they’re able to make adjustments and take some of the looks that he was getting away from him.”
Once the Lakers fell behind, too often they’d get away from the off-ball actions that helped create good looks earlier in the game.
They have the talent to produce efficient and effective offense, but on a night when most of their main scorers struggled, they could’ve done more to make the game easier.
“One of the things I just told them, can’t skip details,” Coach Darvin Ham said. “We had some guys that didn’t shoot the ball well, got great looks they normally make. But just in the sense of team basketball, just continuing to have a next-play mentality.
“Do it as a unit, not just individually trying to get yourself going. If you’re trying to get yourself going, then staying organized within what we’re supposed to be doing, then great. But we can’t skip the details.”