I was rewatching the clutch minutes of the Magic game when LeBron subbed back in for the final time with 3:47 left in the forth quarter. The lineup on the floor was LeBron/Dlo/Prince/Wood/AD. They put LeBron on the opposing point guard, Fultz (who was cooking the shit out of AR), Dlo on Suggs, Prince on Wagner, Wood on Paulo, AD on Wendell Carter Jr.

I think it was interesting how the Lakers shut down the Fultz/Carter pick and roll that was destroying us on the last few possessions.

Descriptions of the last seven defensive plays:

The first defensive play started with a dribble hand off between Fultz and Wagner, Prince fought over the screen and the play ended in a Paulo wing three. However, Suggs got the offensive rebound over Dlo, and Fultz was able to drive past AD in the ensuing chaos and get a layup. SCORE

The second defensive play was a Fultz/Carter pick and roll, which LeBron and AD just switched, causing Fultz to take a contested midrange, which Suggs almost got the oreb again but fumbled it. STOP

The third defensive play started as a Fultz/Paulo pick and roll, which LeBron and Wood switched and was fine. But Fultz then dribbles into a DHO with Suggs, who Dlo is sagging off of for some reason, who hits the open three. SCORE

The next defensive play was a Fultz/Paulo pick and roll, which LeBron and Wood switched, and ended with Paulo driving into LeBron and AD and missing a layup. STOP

The next defensive play was just poor transitioin defense with Fultz passing to a wide open Paulo three, which he just happened to miss. STOP

**At this point the Lakers subbed Vincent for Dlo for extra defense.

The next defensive play started with Fultz trying to drive into LeBron, getting clamped, before passing out to Suggs, who drove past Vincent, but met at the basket by AD. STOP

The final play was just LeBron contesting Wagner into a miss before AD contested Suggs into a miss. STOP

TLDR:

I think the key as to why Wood, LeBron, and AD as a trio works is having three guys who comforably can switch 1-5, which is absolutely NOT what I expected out of Christian Wood. LeBron guarding a point guard down the stretch is also unexpected, but makes sense given Fultz can’t shoot. They essentially shut down all of the Magic’s pick and roll and DHO actions by switching every time.

Now for some negative observations. Out of the five defensive plays with Dlo on the floor, the Magic scored twice, which was directly related to the man he was guarding. The first play saw Suggs slam into him to catch an OREB, leading to Fultz scoring in the chaos. The third play saw Dlo go under the screen (???) which gave Suggs the wide open three. Even the second play almost saw Suggs come away with the offensive rebound again. Dlo needs to put more effort into the defensive end, especially for somone who said they wanted to be like Derrick White. Austin Reaves is not the answer either, as he was getting cooked by Fultz three or four possessions in a row before LeBron subbed in.

In conclusion, the Wood, LeBron, AD trio is amazing on defense because of Wood’s surprising versatility and ability to switch 1-5, and obviously LeBron and AD can as well. Dlo and AR continue to plague our backcourt defensively, they need to be more locked in. I want to believe it’s an effort issue not a personnel issue, but that could be me trying to be optimistic.