SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Anthony Davis, in a familiar situation, stepped to the free-throw line with the game still in the balance.
With 12 seconds remaining, Los Angeles held a 101-99 lead over Sacramento. The Kings had just used an 8-0 run to turn the Lakers’ 10-point advantage into a one-possession game.
Davis, who has a history of missing clutch free throws, including earlier this season, had a chance to ice the game.
Only he missed — both.
But as the ball rattled off the rim, Rui Hachimura pushed past Domantas Sabonis and batted it backward to Davis near the 3-point line. Davis quickly pitched it to Austin Reaves, who was immediately fouled. Reaves made both freebies and the Lakers completed a two-game road sweep of the Kings with a 103-99 win on Saturday night.
“I know I definitely appreciate Rui with the tip out,” Davis said. “And my wife even called me and said, ‘Rui saved you.’ So I was — that made me feel like worse. ‘Whose side you on?’ But at the end of the day … we were able to get a victory.”
The game was shaping up to have shades of the loss to the Orlando Magic on Nov. 21, when the Lakers missed four free throws over the final 40 seconds — including Davis missing three. That loss triggered a stretch in which the Lakers lost seven of nine games and their season looked in jeopardy of spiraling out of control.
But against the Kings, their Northern California nemesis who had won seven of the previous eight matchups entering this season, they overcame the late-game adversity of blowing a lead and missing important free throws to hang on in a display of growth and mental fortitude that eluded them earlier in the season. They’re 3-0 against Sacramento this season.
The 16-12 Lakers have quietly won three straight games and four of five overall, ascending from 10th to fifth in the Western Conference standings over the stretch. They’re doing so with a dominant defense that ranks first in the NBA over that span, allowing just 99.2 points per 100 possessions. They have the seventh-best defense in December and the 10th-best defense over their past 12 games.
The Kings entered the two-game series against the Lakers with the fifth-best offense in the NBA. They mustered only 199 points over two games and have since dropped to seventh in offensive rating.
“Everything that we’re doing defensively, we’ve been physical, we’re talking, we’re communicating, we’re covering for one another,” Davis said. “We’re rebounding. Our coverage is on point. So we’re just flying around doing everything, being gritty, playing desperate on the defensive end.”
Head coach JJ Redick has been transparent about the defensive limitations of the group, acknowledging they don’t have a traditional defensive stopper on the perimeter and have to instead rely more on their team defense being greater than the sum of its parts.
Their lone standout, of course, is Davis, who had nine blocks combined across the two games in Sacramento and outplayed the Sabonis head-to-head even with Davis’ offensive struggles. Redick said he challenged Davis a few weeks ago to step up his effort and engagement on the defensive end after it had slipped. The Lakers have also been more selective recently with their switching and have deployed Davis in more drop coverage against pick-and-rolls and dribble hand-offs, keeping him closer to the basket to protect it.
“The reality is, we’re not going to be a good defensive team, we can’t be a good defensive team, unless he’s fully engaged on that end,” Redick said of Davis. “And I challenged him a few weeks ago and he’s been unbelievable ever since.”
But their defensive success extends beyond just Davis. Max Christie has filled the spot of the fifth starter better than Cam Reddish, Dalton Knecht or D’Angelo Russell did. He’s provided a jolt defensively, taking on Ja Morant and De’Aaron and largely holding his own.
Gabe Vincent and Reddish have all been disruptive and effective perimeter defenders off the bench. Reaves, Hachimura, LeBron James and even Russell have locked into their defenses responsibilities as low men and helpers, rotating and scrambling.
This recent stretch of defense has Redick reconsidering what the group’s defensive potential can be this season.
“I felt coming into the year that we could be a top-10 defense,” Redick said pregame. “Month, month and a half into the season, did not feel that we could be a top-10 defense. But the guys have responded. I mean, it’s been consistent throughout the year. They really responded to things that we’ve emphasized, to adjustments we made, to clarity that we’ve created, to adversity, all of those things.
“So I like where we’re trending there. … Like there’s stuff that you can see now where there’s real trust building on that side of the ball.”
The defensive surge has come at the same time as the Lakers offense has struggled. The team made only nine 3-pointers and shot 25.7 percent on 3s against the Kings on Saturday.
Over their past five games, they rank 30th in the NBA in offensive rating. Their defense has been so dominant that they’ve still managed to have a positive net rating (plus-3.9), but this recent level of offense is concerning for a group whose strength clearly still remains on that end.
On Saturday, they relied on a steady diet of LeBron bully-ball, with the 22-year veteran scoring 23 points in the first half and 32 overall. Russell had 20 points and five assists off the bench, and Reaves had 16 points and five assists as those three combined for most of the offense on a night when Davis (10 points on 4-for-10 shooting and five turnovers) struggled offensively beyond just his missed free throws.
Redick isn’t worried about the team’s big-picture outlook offensively.
“I believe in the long term of our offense and the guys we have, that they’re going to be able to make plays and make shots,” Redick said.
The Lakers return to Los Angeles for a 37-day stretch in which they will spend 30 days in Los Angeles and 33 days in California (including playing three road games against the Golden State Warriors and the LA Clippers). This is a pivotal period in which they can pad their record and pressure the front office to make a trade or two that improves the group’s talent and better balances the roster.
Their defense cannot sustain at this level — for perspective, no team has had a sub-100 defensive rating since the 2015-16 San Antonio Spurs — but if they can stabilize as an average-to-an-above-average defense after being one of the worst in the league over the first 20 or so games, they can be taken more seriously as a West threat moving forward.
“You got to keep that up,” Davis said of the defense. “You know the old term, ‘defense wins championships,’ and we just gotta keep defending.”
(Photo of Gabe Vincent and Domantas Sabonis: Ed Szczepanski / Imagn Images)
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