Lonzo Ball & the Lakers starters were pulled with the game still in reach, as head coach Luke Walton chose to send a valuable message rather than use his best chance to win the game vs the Raptors.
With 3:42 left in the game, & his Lakers trailing by 8, Walton benched his starting five after he said they were loafing on the defensive end:
Via ESPN:
“I took the starters out a little early in the third because they didn’t get back in transition defense, which is our No. 1 key to being a good defensive team,” Walton said. “We talked about how important that third quarter was with the momentum of the game changing and them being a playoff team, so we can’t afford to give those up. So as a teaching lesson, we took them out a little earlier than I normally have done.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t get back on defense again with four minutes to go in a close, winnable game,” Walton added. “You can’t just give away free points. To let them know how serious we are about transition defense, we pulled them out again. We were going to let the starters see what they can do with the game. But when they didn’t get back on the break, they are telling me and each other that they don’t really want to finish that game.”
Luke Walton is a good coach, & the Lakers are very young & inexperienced, so where most coaches would be criticized for such a move, people likely won’t bat an eye at this.
For his part, Lonzo agreed with his coach, explaining how he felt the Lakers lost their edge during the course of the game:
“I think we just lost our intensity, to be honest,” Ball said. “A good team over there, and they came back [in the] second half strong, and we didn’t accept it very well, and we lost.
“[The starters] gave up a lot of fast-break points, people not getting back. It was a unit thing, so that is why he pulled everybody,” Ball added. “We were just ball-watching, to be honest. I was supposed to be back on the point guard, sometimes I go crash [the glass], and I am supposed to get back and just not talking.”
Lonzo has been averaging 9 assists & 9 rebounds, however he’s had extremely spotty shooting early. One thing he has going for him is his demeanor, he handled the benching very well & showed great leadership.
With lessons like this one; he’ll be better off in the long run. Intense defense usually turns into much better shooting opportunities.