If you’ve watched any Los Angeles Lakers basketball this preseason, you’ve noticed just how adamant they are about playing small. They’ve pushed a breakneck pace; they’re switching everything; LeBron James and his teammates are doing whatever they can to revive Showtime.
For that to work, though, there’s one thing the Lakers absolutely have to be able to do, and that’s defend consistently. And you aren’t defending if you aren’t finishing possessions with the basketball.
“It’s all about group rebounding,” James told reporters after practice Monday. “It all depends on the small-ball unit you got out there, we’ve got some guys that are more physical than others, but you know at the end of the day we all have to help each other, especially on the glass.