Essentially, the Lakers' main weakness for over half of a decade now has been their perimeter defense. Specifically, the Lakers have always had trouble guarding the point guard position.
Dating back to Derek Fisher's twilight years in a Lakers uniform, the Lakers have had to compensate for opposing point guards' exploitation of this weakness with strong interior defense and crisp rotations.
However, with an aging roster, the absence of Kobe Bryant and a defensive center in Dwight Howard who is just rounding back into form following back surgery, the Lakers' weakness on the perimeter was exploited again and again.
Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili combined for close to 34 points per game, with both shooting relatively close to 50 percent from the field.
In fact, Tony Parker had no trouble slicing and dicing his way into the lane with little resistance from the perimeter.
With a gimpy Steve Nash and a defensively challenged group of role-playing point guards, the Lakers had no chance against the former Finals MVP in Parker.
Aside from their shoddy perimeter defense, the Lakers were also unable to put up points against a very stingy San Antonio defense.
While the Spurs were able to put up over 100 points in three of their four games against the Lakers during the playoffs, the Lakers were only able to top 90 points once.
Without Kobe Bryant, the Lakers have very little else to offer offensively, which is a far cry from the cohesive unit and offensive versatility they had during their 2009 and 2010 title runs.
Howard isn't the post player that Andrew Bynum was, which means that they cannot ...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
