The offense has arrived, but Mark Williams has to be better defensively

Hornets center has been great offensively, but not so much defensively.
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Mark Williams has had a terrific stretch of games offensively in the last month since being lifted off of his minutes restriction. In his last 10 games, Williams is averaging 19 points and 11.8 rebounds in 30.6 minutes.

However, the defensive side of the ball has been a continuous issue for Williams as of late. That issue was shown in the Hornets' loss to the Lakers on Monday night. Anthony Davis had one of those Anthony Davis games, as he achieved a double-double in the first quarter and finished with 42 points and 23 rebounds.

The play below was a sign of Williams' effort level not being where it needed to be, as his teammate Miles Bridges was yelling at him to get back on defense. Unfortunately, he didn't get back in time, which resulted in free throws for Anthony Davis.

Davis is undeniably one of the top centers of all time and still is one of the best centers in the NBA, but this problem for Williams wasn't just about his performance on Monday. It began a couple of weeks ago when Williams faced off against the Chicago Bulls and Nikola Vucevic.

Vucevic scored 40 points in the matchup and was almost the reason the Hornets lost the game. He went after the Williams matchup each and every play and had success almost every time. Williams has always struggled with centers that are stronger and more physical than him, but that's something that has been noticeably shown more in the recent weeks.

Williams still had a great game offensively with 19 points and 19 rebounds, but he also gave up most of those points back to Vucevic, who had one of the better games in the last couple of seasons.

The following game, Daniel Gafford for the Dallas Mavericks had a career-best performance, as he scored 31 points and also gathered 15 rebounds. It was a game once again where Williams struggled with the physicality of Gafford and got into foul trouble early on in the game.

Mark Williams is very young, as he's still just 23 years old, but these are some of the improvements he needs to make to take his game to the next level. Being out for close to a year may have an impact on his struggles defensively, but it seems to be more of a physicality issue.

In the offseason, Williams needs to put on some weight to be able to battle with these centers in the paint and avoid letting his opponents and matchups attack him each and every play. Offensively, not much of an issue, but defensively, if he works on that side of the game, then he could be one of the most premier and talented centers in the association.

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