SALT LAKE CITY — The Lakers thrived early in the season – and continue to – because of their pick-and-roll dominance, led by guards Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves as ball handlers and big men Deandre Ayton and Jaxson Hayes as the roll men.
When LeBron James made his season debut last month, he added another dimension to the team’s already potent offense with his playmaking and post game, in addition to his screening, ability to get downhill and being a threat in transition.
But in Thursday’s road win over the Utah Jazz, it was the Lakers’ usage of Doncic and James off the ball that helped them have one of their best offensive performances against an admittedly defensively challenged Jazz team.
“I don’t know the volume, I haven’t looked at the stats for tonight, but we didn’t necessarily run a ton of pick and roll,” Coach JJ Redick said. “It was a lot of off-ball stuff.”
With Doncic, who led the Lakers with a 45-point, 14-assist, 11-rebound triple-double, a lot of his off-ball work came from Away action (a weakside down screen) to create an advantage for Doncic while he had momentum moving toward the basket.
The Lakers also had Doncic come off of Flare screens out of their Horns alignment – also known as Horns Flare – which produced easier scoring opportunities for Doncic or his teammates once he got the ball back.
“Luka, being live on some stuff where he was off-ball and then making plays once he got the ball was awesome,” Redick said.
The Lakers were also successful with James coming off of Flare screens out of their Horns sets.
James has also had a higher frequency of stampede cuts – when an off-ball player cuts to the basket as they’re about to receive a pass. James’ stampede cuts usually come after Doncic ran a pick and roll, which occupies the defense’s attention, creating even more space for James to operate.
James’ assist to Rui Hachimura on a corner 3-pointer to give the Lakers a 134-127 lead with just over a minute left in the game came after a stampede cut from James.
“You have to have an array of offensive sets,” James said. “The pie chart has to look a lot different. It can’t just be ISO or heavy pick and roll or heavy post-ups. It has to have a good balance.
“Some teams play defense differently than other teams. So you have to be able to go into the playbook, going to the toolbox to say, ‘OK, we have this versus this; we have this versus that. And I think we’re gonna continue to build that, but. [Thursday] was a good start for us.”
Even with the Lakers’ offense ranking No. 6 in the league, Redick still sees areas for improvement.
“Still a lot of work to do,” Redick said. “I think part of the struggle, and I use that word very lightly ’cause it’s not like a struggle where I’m like sitting there like beating my head against the wall, but part of the struggle as a coach is getting guys to buy into maybe doing something that they’re not comfortable with. It’s easy to just [say], ‘I just wanna run pick and roll. It’s easy.
“Isn’t always the right thing to do versus a defense. And I felt like [on Thursday], especially Luka, LeBron, they really just bought into the off-ball stuff, and we milked a couple plays over and over again. They ended up getting the ball and then either having open shots or driving. They did a good job of that, and that’s gonna be a continuous thing throughout the year. Getting those guys to buy in has been good.”
LAKERS AT CLIPPERS
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Intuit Dome
TV/Radio: Spectrum SportsNet/710 AM