Offensive Rebounds Are the Lakers’ Secret Sauce

The Los Angeles Lakers had a middling-to-poor half-court offense during the regular season, which was a reason to worry about them in the playoffs. Instead, that has not been a problem: According to Cleaning the Glass, the Lakers’ offensive rating in the half-court is 102.0, which is second-best in the playoffs, 3.8 points higher than the league average, and a whopping 7.6 points per 100 possessions above where they were before August 17th.

There are several reasons for this—up to and including the fact that no team has done a better job avoiding half-court situations altogether—but one noticeable element has been the Lakers’ focus on crashing the offensive glass.

Once upon a time, offensive rebounding was considered integral to any championship team. As Pat Riley himself said back in the early 80’s: “No rebounds, no rings.” But over the past 20 years, the NBA has seen a drop in offensive rebound rate and second-chance possessions. That plunge has been even steeper in the playoffs, and there’s been even more of a dramatic decline in rebounds off missed threes. The easiest explanation is the prioritization of transition defense: Every team in the league knows now that it's significantly easier to score early and in the open floor, and so most players are instructed to retreat quickly to set the defense after a teammate shoots the ball.

The Lakers are defying all of these trends in the playoffs, where their offensive rebound rate has increased from the regular season, when it was sixth-ranked 28.3%, to 29.7 percent, a number that only trails the giant Philadelphia 76ers, who were swept in the first round. Just about every other team has headed in the opposite direction. And to their credit, the Lakers haven’t been punished in transition, where opponents are running on them at a lower rate than the regular season (from 15.1 down to 14 percent).

It’s particularly glaring on missed threes, which, well the Lakers miss a lot of threes! The league average offensive rebound rate right now is 18.9 percent on those shots, but L.A. is snatching 24.9 percent of them. (They were at 22.8 percent during the regular season, when the league average was 20.4 percent.) The Lakers know who they are, their offense is straightforward and transparent, and when those shots fly, they slither into the paint, jostle for position, make calculated risks, and force the defense to hang back and secure the ball, turning leak outs into their own death sentence.

Playing the small Houston Rockets and a depleted Portland Trail Blazers frontline surely helps all these numbers, but L.A.’s offensive rebound rate was highest against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. And among all players who’ve appeared in at least 10 games, Dwight Howard, JaVale McGee, and Anthony Davis rank fourth, fifth, and 11th in offensive rebound rate, respectively. But those bigs haven’t seen their individual offensive rebound rates jump as much as Rajon Rondo, Alex Caruso, Danny Green, and, yes, LeBron James, who’ve done an excellent job extending their team’s possessions at a higher rate than they did during the regular season.

In particular, when Green is on the floor the Lakers see their offensive rebound rate reach 35 percent, which is a throwback to a bygone era and the Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum-led 2010 champion Lakers. Plays like this are why Green gives L.A. a bigger bump in this area than any other player in the bubble:

Forcing an offense led by Davis and LeBron to miss a shot is hard enough. But when a role player grabs one of their misses and then feeds another role player for an open three, the opponent’s will is probably depleted. Only three points are added to the scoreboard, but the thought of what could’ve been heading the other way adds insult to injury.

Offensive rebounds are a big reason why L.A.’s big lineups are rolling through the playoffs with such an efficient attack, grabbing over a third of their own misses. (They also go out of their way to box out on the offensive end more than just about any other team; the Lakers led the regular season in offensive box outs and are doing it even more in the playoffs.) And as a team, after they corral an offensive rebound, the Lakers have done a better job making the defense pay than anybody else, by an extremely wide margin.

The playoff average for putback points per 100 misses is 16.1. The Lakers are scoring 23; the closest team behind them is Dallas, in the dust at 18.6. During the regular season, the Lakers were at 22.3 points per 100 misses, but the league average was 19.3. It’s yet another example of L.A. increasing their postseason production where other teams have tapered off. (When they’re small, with Howard and McGee on the sideline, and LeBron and Davis in the game, the Lakers are even more efficient on putbacks—26.6 points per 100 misses!—without any real decrease in volume.)

In the Finals, all this could prove to be a death sentence for Miami’s lauded zone, a look designed to force outside shots but vulnerable on the glass (which is why Brad Stevens played Enes Kanter against the Heat and Raptors, despite all his defensive problems). It’s just one element in a much larger chess match between two of the NBA’s best teams, but with margins slim and every possession holding enough power to decide who wins and who loses, every time the Lakers gobble up one of their own misses they take one step closer to the Larry O’Brien trophy.

Originally Appeared on GQ