Steve Blake’s Defense

Published by lakers-fan.com on May 9th, 2012 | Tagged Uncategorized

After watching the series against Denver, I have been frustrated with one specific trend. Steve Blake’s defense. I know he is a back-up point guard, but the guy still needs to defend the lane. Remember when Bynum elbowed Barea? Bynum stated it was due to his frustration with the lane being wide open. That said… Is Steve Blake the worst defender on the LA Lakers? I was curious and did some stat digging.

The Stats:
- Denver is 52% in the lane vs the Lakers, they were 40% on the season
- Game 5: Denver had 58pts in the paint vs 44pts for the Lakers
- Mike Brown on Game 5: “Our paint protection on the defensive end of the floor is not good right now. [The Nuggets] don’t have many post-up threats, big, strong guys that can back you down … and they outscore us in paint points, 58-44. Our weak side did not do a good job of having awareness, nor did we do a good job as team protecting that paint.”

Moral of the Story:
PROTECT THE PAINT LAKERS!