Lakers News: How Transition Play Has Galvanized LA's Recent Improvement

The aging team has to learn to keep pace with the rest of the league

The hardest plays to stop in basketball is in the transition game. Whether it's off a turnover or a quick rebound, a defense has very little time to set up when teams are running down the court. 

While the Lakers have aging stars in Russell Westbrook and LeBron James, they make up for their age with their extreme athleticism. The IQ levels of these two remain off the charts and when running down the court it's near impossible to consider what they might do together. 

The Lakers have learned to use this to their advantage, even without Anthony Davis, and Westbrook knows how important it is to remain consistent in this category (via Spectrum SportsNet).

"It's important. Especially for us our pace is important because we're very hard to stop in transition. With the ability to get to the basket and make plays with the guys we have. That's something we have to challenge ourselves to do and keep pressure on the defense. There's no scout for speed so we have to keep using that to our advantage." 

"Guys go down unfortunately, we got a group of guys who been preparing themselves for when it's their moment". @russwest44 on the #Lakers win. pic.twitter.com/0zwYGrxxaM

— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) January 7, 2023

The Lakers have had their fair share of lows this season but find themselves winners of five straight games. To make matters more impressive, those five wins were achieved with four different lineups (LA had the same starting five on Friday and Saturday). 

The Lakers are clicking at exactly the right time and perhaps the answer is their transition game. As long as the Lakers keep making the right plays and challenging defenses with their speed teams are going to have trouble keeping up.