Five reasons to be optimistic about the Lakers entering the All-Star break
Even the best soap operas have fewer twists and turns than this Los Angeles Lakers season.
At times, the Lakers have resembled a group destined for an early offseason and a Play-In Tournament loss. At other times, they’ve looked like the group that made the Western Conference finals last season, with the potential to make another deep playoff run depending on how the West bracket shakes out. And that’s to say nothing of off-court matters, from endless trade rumors to hourglass emoji tweets to perpetual palace intrigue.
Recently, the Lakers have resembled their best selves, though, winning six of their seven games entering the All-Star break. Since The Athletic surfaced concerns about coach Darvin Ham’s standing in the locker room in early January, the group is 13-7 — the fifth-best record in the West behind the LA Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns and Minnesota Timberwolves.
That success is legitimate and, more importantly, sustainable, according to one of the most important voices in the locker room.
“Yeah,” Anthony Davis told reporters in Salt Lake City when asked if this is who the Lakers are. “Not what we can be, but it’s who we are. … We’re starting to establish that we’re going to be a fast-paced team, a team that likes to get into the paint, get to the line. But also be tenacious on the defensive end. (We’re) creating that identity for what we have to be moving forward.
“We can’t be coming back from All-Star and (say) ‘All right, what type of team are we? This is what we have to be.’ This is who we are. And we’ve got to make sure how we’re playing as of late, the past two, three, four weeks, keeping that identity and carrying it over into post-All-Star.”
There are plenty of reasons to be pessimistic about the Lakers (30-26). They’re still ninth in the unforgiving West despite racking up wins lately. Davis and LeBron James have been largely healthy but have both suffered notable injuries in each of the past three seasons. Health has been an issue all season — and remains an issue with multiple rotation players still out. Ham has struggled to push the right lineup and rotation buttons. LA will likely have to go through the Play-In to make the playoffs, a path they overcame to make the West finals last season but is undoubtedly difficult.
But despite those reasons to doubt them, there is plenty to be optimistic about as well. Here are five reasons to believe in the Lakers.
1. The new starting lineup
It took longer than expected — and frankly, longer than it should have — but the Lakers have found something with their starting lineup of D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, James and Davis.
Through 10 games and 87 minutes, the Lakers have outscored opponents by 20 points with that unit, tied for the best mark among the eight Laker lineups that have played 50 or more minutes. They are 8-2 in the games that unit plays together and 5-0 with them as starters. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Lakers have beaten opponents by 10.3 points per 100 possessions, with a good offense (74th percentile) and a middling defense (52nd percentile).
The shot profile with the lineup is excellent: They attempt 48 percent of their shots at the rim, which is in the 99th percentile of all lineups, according to Cleaning The Glass. Additionally, 12.1 percent of their shot attempts are corner 3s, which ranks in the 82nd percentile of lineups. With two superstars, four quality passers (Davis’ improved court vision is real) and five players who can attack from all three areas of the floor, it’s an incredibly challenging lineup to defend.
Perimeter defense is an obvious limitation. Teams target Russell and Reaves defensively, trying to create mismatches in isolation and power through them. Hachimura’s frame is better suited to defend fours and fives than twos and threes. He can hold his own in some matchups, but quicker and more athletic wings give him trouble, as do players who are active off the ball and move well around screens. But as evidenced by the Lakers’ 138-122 thumping of the New Orleans Pelicans last Friday, their collective offense with their new starting unit is overwhelming enough to thrive against most opponents.
Jarred Vanderbilt’s potential return from a right foot injury is an interesting wrinkle. The Lakers were planning on starting him in the Feb. 1 Boston matchup before James and Davis were ruled out, according to team sources. (Vanderbilt ended up starting anyway without the normal starters and was injured during the game.) That said, by the time he’d likely return — sometime in March, at the earliest — the Lakers would already have played a dozen or so more games with their new starters. Hachimura held up better than Vanderbilt in the 2023 playoffs anyway, though he was played off the floor in the second-round series against Golden State.
Hachimura is the Lakers’ fifth-best player behind the other four starters. As reductive as it seems, playing your best players more minutes and together raises a team’s ceiling, even if their fit is imperfect. He gives the starting frontcourt a tough, physically imposing identity. He mashes mismatches and is active on the glass. He can be too narrow-minded in trying to generate his own offense, but that can have benefits as long as it’s kept in check. Using Hachimura at the three, and playing larger in general, reinforces the identity Davis laid out.
2. LeBron and AD
This season, James and Davis are collectively the healthiest they’ve been since the 2019-20 season. By this point in the previous three seasons, one or both had suffered a major injury that kept them out for at least several weeks. That could mean something is bound to go wrong soon. Or, this could be the new normal, at least for this season.
Davis has been one of the 10 best players in the NBA this season. He should be getting a stronger look for Defensive Player of the Year. James has been slightly below Davis’ nightly consistency, but he remains an unguardable freight train in transition, on downhill drives and off cuts. When James heats up from the perimeter, he’s still capable of swinging a quarter, half or game. When engaged defensively, he’s still a help-side savant and chase-down menace.
Five years into their partnership, Davis and James remain arguably the best duo in the league. At worst, they’re second or third. Being bullish on the Lakers means believing James and Davis can stay healthy and remain at their All-NBA levels. If they can, Los Angeles will have two of the three best players in most playoff series and the two best players in some matchups. That is what makes the Lakers the type of opponent most higher seeds want to avoid.
3. The Dinwiddie addition
Spencer Dinwiddie has fit in well through two games, averaging 8.0 points, 5.5 assists and 2.0 steals in 29.5 minutes. He’s already shown a nice chemistry with his teammates as he figures out the tenets of the offense and the spots they like the ball.
As Dinwiddie becomes more comfortable, he should amass a larger role within the offense. He’s deferred too often, but that’s a positive sign in that he’s trying to make his best first impression. He’ll always be behind James, Davis, Russell, Reaves and likely Hachimura in the pecking order, but the Lakers can use another weapon to stabilize lineups with at least three scorers at all times. They also needed a backup point guard with Gabe Vincent still out after arthroscopic knee surgery; his return this season is still up in the air.
Expectations are generally low for buyout players, at least internally, but Dinwiddie just has to be a solid backup guard. If he can just be a useful rotation player, which seems reasonable based on his track record and his first couple of games, it would be a win for the Lakers. The fact that they added such a player for a minimal cost changes the tenor around their inactivity at the deadline.
4. Reinforcements are on the way
The All-Star break couldn’t have come at a better time for the Lakers.
They have four injured players — Vanderbilt, Vincent, Max Christie and Cam Reddish — set to be re-evaluated after the break. Reddish (ankle) and Christie (ankle) expected back soon, if not immediately.
There is uncertainty regarding Vincent and Vanderbilt. As The Athletic previously reported, there is some internal pessimism about the chances of Vanderbilt staving off season-ending surgery and returning this season. Vincent has had a couple of setbacks after his initial knee injury, which led him to undergo surgery. The Lakers have an incentive to slow-play the returns of both players — in addition to their general duty to protect them from reinjury — as both are signed for multiple seasons. Dinwiddie is Vincent insurance, to an extent. There wasn’t a player available on the trade or buyout market who could replace Vanderbilt.
Still, the Lakers’ perimeter defense has been decimated recently, and they’ve found ways to not only stay afloat but thrive. Christie and Reddish will add much-needed elements of point-of-attack defense, switchability, defensive rebounding, spot-up shooting, athleticism and energy.
5. The upcoming home slate
Seven of the Lakers’ next 10 games are at home, where they’re 19-9 this season — the fifth-best home record in the West. March is a time when the Lakers can pad their record, with nine of their 14 games in Los Angeles. Of course, the same was true in January, when the Lakers went 7-8.
To be clear: The games are going to be difficult. The Lakers host Denver, Oklahoma City, Sacramento, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Golden State and Philadelphia in March. But given LA’s home success, and its recent play, it’s feasible the Lakers they go at least .500 against the upcoming A-level competition, as they showed in January with wins over the Clippers, Dallas and Oklahoma City. Several players — Russell, Vanderbilt, Reddish, Christie and Christian Wood — play better at home statistically. (Reaves, Hachimura and Taurean Prince play better on the road, interestingly.)
Los Angeles needs to make up ground in the standings over the next few weeks. The quickest and most effective way is to beat the teams above them in head-to-head matchups. But another way is to beef up on home wins. LA will likely need to do both to ascend into the No. 6 or No. 7 seed (the Pelicans are currently sixth, 3 1/2 games ahead of the LA). That feels like an attainable goal if the Lakers stay relatively healthy and continue their recent play.
I've never heard mention of this. It's always "Now we're gonna rewind the way back machine and show you Darwin Ham guarding a young Lebron James." 
I remember them first in the early 2000s, and no ******* way 
Getting comfy? 
