3 of 14, Davis can't play the No. 5 position, and the Lakers lack a "Howard"

Today, the Lakers challenged the Heat away and lost to the Heat by a huge margin of 41 points. In this game, we saw the Lakers' negativity on the defensive end again. The Heat's offensive level was originally in the middle and lower reaches of the league, but in this game against the Lakers, they actually scored a high score of 134 points, and their offensive efficiency suddenly improved from 20th in the league to 12th in the league. This shows how poor the Lakers' defense is.

The Lakers not only had problems on the defensive end today, but also seriously aberrated on the offensive end, and the most abnormal one today was Davis. Davis has been able to score more than 30 points in almost many games this season, but today he only scored 8 points on 3-of-14 shooting against a not-so-tall interior player like Adebayo, which is extremely undeserved. In the previous game against the Nuggets, Wei Shao angrily scolded Davis for playing soft. Davis is really not a tough player right now.

Of course, aside from Davis' lack of toughness, he is not a player who is good at playing the number five position. The Lakers have always used Davis as the No. 5 position, and although the state at the beginning of the season was good, it was too much for him to a certain extent. Davis used to play the No. 4 position when he was with the Pelicans, and when he played the No. 4 position, Davis could be a little easier on the defensive end, and once he played the No. 5 position, he needed to constantly help the outside players make up for the defense in a game, which was very expensive for him. In other words, Davis needs to be on both the offensive and defensive ends at the moment. As a player who is physically fragile and susceptible to physical influences, this is a huge challenge for him.

The 2020 season of the Lakers is very much missed by many fans these days. That team had Howard in the middle of that, and Davis was playing at the No. 4 position. Fans vaguely remember that the Lakers' defensive efficiency was the first in the league that year, and it was precisely because of their excellent defense that they could win the championship that year. I remember that many teams in the league did not dare to break into the Lakers' interior at that time, because they would face the double defense of Davis and Howard, and the Lakers' defensive system at that time was airtight. But now the Lakers' system is completely collapsed, and it comes down to the lack of a tall center player, a "Howard-esque" interior player.

Of course, it's not just the Lakers that lack a true center, but they also need to change their defense in the backcourt. Reeves, Russell, and Knecht are not good defensively. They can't hold the first line of defense, so naturally the Lakers will often appear on the court to be penetrated by opponents. So it comes down to something wrong with the Lakers' defense. If the defense gets better, everything will be solved.