The Lakers Only Have One Pitch. In the Playoffs, That’s a Problem.

A couple months before the NBA season pressed pause, I was talking to a GM about the abnormally crowded championship race. Which teams could legitimately win it all, and why? We went back and forth about the Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Clippers, and a few other strong candidates.

“Those teams check almost all the boxes. If we need a little bit of that, we got it. Most of their players can play together,” the GM said. Then I asked about the Lakers. He sighed, borderline reluctant to include an undeniable juggernaut. “I don’t see that same level of flexibility on the Lakers.”

The GM wasn’t dismissing L.A. out of hand, because he’s not dumb and he knows LeBron James and Anthony Davis are a pair of backstage passes into the NBA’s VIP room. But the Lakers are the Western Conference’s top seed, with better Las Vegas odds than every other team, and established title-or-bust expectations, and yet they also have more structural imperfections than all their rivals. This has become more apparent over the first few bubble games: Before the NBA season shut down, the Lakers had the fourth best offense in the NBA. Over their last four games, they’re 22nd in offensive rating...out of 22 teams.

It goes deeper than fretting over Dion Waiters or Kyle Kuzma as a trustworthy scoring option, or Danny Green being their third most important player, or Alex Caruso being elevated to a key role in crunch-time lineups, or J. R. Smith potentially entering the rotation if any of those aforementioned players sprain their ankle.

The problem is that the Lakers only have one reliable way to score. They rank second in percentage of points scored on a fastbreak, and third in points scored off turnovers. In transition, no team has been more efficient. These opportunities are a power source for all the shots L.A. takes around the basket. But that’s also the number one area opposing defenses look to take away in the trenches of a playoff series, when the frenetic looseness that can be found throughout the regular season steadies itself into more of a chess match.

In their last four games, Los Angeles is shooting 25.2% from beyond the arc. That number will rise for no other reason than it has to, but it’s also indicative of the lows L.A. is capable of, particularly against a contest-every-shot defense like the one deployed by the Toronto Raptors in their win against the Lakers a few nights ago. Any team looking to slow L.A. down will do what Toronto did: swarm Anthony Davis, dramatically shrink the floor, protect the paint, and force tough above-the-break threes.

Talent has long been what separates the NBA’s very good from its top shelf, but an increasingly important ingredient is breadth—the ability to adapt on the fly against an opponent that can alter its own playing style. Put another way, it’s awesome if you can throw a 100-mile-per-hour fastball. But when it’s the sixth inning and the hitters are seeing the ball better, other pitches are necessary. The Lakers do not have any other pitches.

When the game slows down, the Lakers are average-to-bad—they own the 19th best half-court offense in the league this season—and lineups that don’t include Avery Bradley, who of course isn’t playing, are significantly worse. Of even more concern, their crunch-time offense ranks 22nd, one spot behind the New York Knicks! LeBron has been a monster from the post and is more intimate with every pick-and-roll coverage than 18-year-old me was with McDonald’s’ dollar menu, but when it’s time to face a quality opponent that has time to prepare and scheme, plug driving lanes, and squeeze the type of shots L.A. avoided for most of the season, what’s its Plan C, D, and E?

Heading into this season, it was assumed that the Lakers would reach another gear when they put Davis at the five. That’s proved true defensively—where the Lakers have been even more stout—but the ostensible offensive benefits of those lineups have instead exposed the rest of the roster’s limitations. Yes, the Lakers have been historically terrible from three in the bubble so far, but even before, when their three-point shooting was middle of the pack, those small lineups had trouble scoring in the half court because they couldn’t buy a three. Stay big and the floor gets even more cramped for LeBron and Davis.

Over the course of four quarters and then seven games, the Clippers can go away from Kawhi Leonard and Paul George and still generate efficient offense with a long look at Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell. Giannis Antetokounmpo is an unprecedented force, but a huge reason the Bucks are the Bucks is their system, which cooks even when he’s off the floor. (Plus the Bucks are the NBA’s best at protecting the rim; the Lakers probably can’t beat them without making a lot of threes.) The Raptors can adopt any style in the sport’s existence and be okay, and the Celtics have multiple All-Stars who can make plays, score, and defend, regardless of who else is on the court.

The Lakers, meanwhile, are hyper-reliant on a singular offensive approach (speed!) that will almost definitely curdle in the postseason. It’s not that this team can’t win the championship, but don’t be surprised when they come up short.

Originally Appeared on GQ