Hot-shooting Lakers prove tough to guard in first part of regular season

While the Los Angeles Lakers have struggled with uneven play defensively and at times taking care of the basketball, filling up the basket has not been an issue.

Entering Friday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs, the Lakers lead the NBA in field goal percentage (52.4 percent) and are No. 2 in three-point shooting (41.7 percent).

The Lakers have five players averaging double figures in LeBron James (23.4 points per game), Anthony Davis (19.8), Dennis Schröder (17.6), Montrezl Harrell (14.0) and Kyle Kuzma (12.0).

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (9.8) is on the cusp of joining that group.

Lakers head coach Frank Vogel said his team’s ability to share the basketball and spread the wealth makes them hard to guard offensively.

“We’re playing intelligent, offensive basketball,” Vogel said. “We’re really attacking. And with the exception of some stretches in the Portland game, we’re really thinking extra-pass basketball. We’ve got a lot of shot makers on this team. So if you’re focusing on shot quality and the extra pass with the shot makers we have on this team, we’re going to have the ability to be efficient.”

Along with 23.4 points, James is averaging seven rebounds and 6.8 assists a contest.

James said with Schröder and center Marc Gasol on the roster, he can get back to being one of the best finishers in the game.

“I’ll never try to put a cap or ceiling on trying to evolve my game,” James said. “This year with the addition of Dennis and the addition of Marc, being able to play off the ball, getting back to moving without the ball and cutting. As you’ve seen, I had a good cut tonight (Wednesday), when Dennis drove base-line I was able to cut into his vision and get a dunk, some easy points.

“I haven’t been able to do that in a few years. So, I could get back to that, using my wide receivers skills.”

One of the things that makes the Lakers hard to slow down is they have several players that can get buckets. Wesley Matthews shot 6-for-6 from beyond the arc, finishing with 18 points in a win over the Spurs on Wednesday.

And the team’s leading scorer during preseason play, Talen Horton-Tucker, hasn’t had an opportunity to get going during the regular season.

The Lakers can score in a diversity of ways, and that makes it tough to contain them. They can play up-tempo or slow it down and execute in a half-court setting. They can beat you inside the paint, or on the perimeter with deep shots or drives to the basket. So, it’s basically pick your poison for the opposing team.

“We’ve really improved our spacing,” Vogel said. “And just the reads within our offense, understanding what the defense is going to give you. We want to be a great reading team, with great spacing around us. And if we read and commit to shot quality, we’ve got enough shot makers on this team to score the ball at a highly efficient rate. I think we’ve done that for most of our early season, save for a few stretches.”