Frank Vogel and the Los Angeles Lakers still have a long list of issues to sort out — further complicated by LeBron James' unexpected stint on the NBA's health and safety protocols. On the plus side, though, they seem to have remedied one of their early-season maladies: the third quarter.
Entering last Sunday's visit to the Detroit Pistons, the Lakers ranked second to last in the NBA in third-quarter scoring margin (-80) — “trailing” only those lowly Pistons. In that game, as you'll recall, LeBron and Isaiah Stewart were ejected early into the third quarter, and a deflated Lakers team was outscored 31-23 in the period, moving their season 3Q scoring margin below Detroit's (they rallied for the win).
As the Lakers' third-quarter struggles became a talking point and real cause for concern — from early in the season — no solid explanation emerged. Was it simply effort? Were they smoking hookah at halftime? Some combination of the two?
“We’ve just got to find a way to score in the third quarter,” Anthony Davis said after the Lakers' loss to the Celtics on Nov. 20. “That’s been our Kryptonite the whole season.”
“Obviously third quarters have been really bad for us this year,” James echoed in the same postgame session. “We’ll try to figure that out. We need to be better with that.”
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6L7QT8tDJ3RF060SkgvLE7?si=92c348f8f5684b4f
The Lakers were searching for answers. I mean, how can one rationalize being outscored 40-12(!) at Staples Center by the Minnesota Timberwolves?
“It was a troubled area for us,” Frank Vogel recently said. “Obviously, that Minnesota game was the biggest one and we knew we had to do better there.”
Since the win in Detroit, the Lakers have turned things around out of the locker room. Against the Pistons back in Los Angeles this past Sunday, they won Q3 by 10 points on their way to a four-point victory.
“It just starts on the defensive end,” LeBron said after the game. “In the third quarter, we got defensive stops, we rebounded and we were able to get out in transition. We shared the ball, we got the ball moving from side to side and we just played with great pace. Those are pretty good ingredients to us having a good third quarter.”
As James pointed out, the Lakers' third-quarter tides seem to be ebbing.
“Coming into tonight, we won five of our last eight third quarters, this makes it six of nine and hopefully we’re going to continue that trend,” he said.
According to Jacob Rude of Silver Screen and Roll, the Lakers ranked 29th in net rating, 29th in defensive rating (120.6!), and 26th in offensive rating in third quarters through their first 15 games. Over the next seven contests, they were fifth in defense (101.2) and eighth in net rating (12.4).
In Tuesday night's win over the Sacramento Kings — a welcome blowout hours after LeBron's positive COVID-19 tests — the Lakers used a dominant 37-15 third quarter to pull away. They've outscored opponents by 51 over their past five third quarters.
Frank Vogel supposedly delivered a fiery halftime speech, which multiple Lakers credited with effectively motivating the squad. Whether Vogel needs to tap into his Norman Dale, Eric Taylor, or hand out Michael's Secret Stuff — whatever he's doing lately is working.
Now, the Lakers rank 22nd in third-quarter scoring margin. This is progress.
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