The Los Angeles Lakers have shown notable improvement on defense in recent weeks, after a challenging start to the NBA season. The team, built around Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves, and 41-year-old LeBron James, was not expected to excel defensively. Early in the season, the Lakers struggled significantly on that end of the floor.
Through their first 46 games, the Lakers posted a defensive rating of 117.3, ranking them 25th in the league—only ahead of teams such as the Brooklyn Nets, New Orleans Pelicans, Sacramento Kings, Washington Wizards, and Utah Jazz. However, over their last 15 games since January 29, their defensive rating improved to 112.0. This performance places them 12th in the NBA during that span.
During this period, Los Angeles has achieved a record of nine wins and six losses and holds a positive net rating. Their recent victory over the Pelicans highlighted these defensive gains. LeBron James commented on the team’s performance after that game: “We got stops,” James said. “They mixed up the defenses a lot, so it confused a little bit offensively. But [we] made some plays, we turned a lot of those stops into fast break opportunities.”
James further addressed the team’s progress: “I think so. I think we’ve made some strides defensively,” he added. “We didn’t play much at all in zone tonight. We started the game out with it, we kind of went away from it. I thought the man-to-man defense was pretty good. Jaxson [Hayes] and Marcus [Smart] were great on that end and then everybody else trickled in as well.”
The Lakers were widely regarded as an offense-oriented team entering this season but have recently performed better than average on defense as well as maintaining a top-10 offense since late January. If they continue this level of play on both ends of the court—currently ranking ninth offensively since January 29—they could be contenders in what is considered a competitive Western Conference.
Looking ahead, LeBron James’s future remains uncertain as he approaches free agency at age 41 this summer. Options include re-signing with Los Angeles, returning to his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers or retiring from professional basketball altogether. According to ongoing reports, James has not yet decided and will wait until after the season concludes before making any announcements about his plans.
