Poor Defense Is the Biggest Culprit in Recent Slide Toward Mediocrity

What has turned the Lakers into a .500 team since mid-March?

From all anecdotal, verbal and statistical evidence, there’s one huge reason: They can’t stop anybody.

Since the March 10 trade of Eddie Jones--their best perimeter and transition defender--and Elden Campbell to the Charlotte Hornets for Glen Rice, J.R. Reid and since-waived B.J. Armstrong, the Lakers have been a poor defensive team in every way, with or without Dennis Rodman. Before the trade, the Lakers were a top offensive team, had a 15-6 record, and were middle-of-the-pack defensively, giving up an average of 92.6 points.

In the 20 games since the trade, the Lakers have maintained their offensive pace, but are 10-10 because opponents are averaging 99.3 points.

That’s a devastating eight points higher than the league scoring average, a credibility gap impossible to cover up in any potential playoff drive.

“We can’t continue to be at the bottom of the league defensively and expect to be at the top of the league standings,” point guard Derek Fisher said. “It’s tough to be unable to stop teams from scoring a lot of points if you’re going to win basketball games.”

The arrival of Rice and departure of Jones moved Kobe Bryant from small forward, where he had displayed new-found defensive tenacity, to shooting guard, where he has struggled chasing shooters through screens and staying focused away from the ball.

Rice, never a defensive wizard to begin with, came to the Lakers after sitting out the first month, has been sick recently, and hasn’t been successful checking opponent small forwards.

When Kurt Rambis took over the coaching reins from Del Harris, he hoped to play more straight-up defense and move away from Harris’ use of tricks and traps to mask individual shortcomings.

Guess what’s happening now? Rambis is moving more toward trapping, after seeing opponents slice up the Laker defense.

“Our defense wasn’t as good as it could be, but we did a much better job of the things I was asking the team to do,” Rambis said after Saturday’s 109-93 loss at Utah.

“I could see the effort. I could see them trying to do the things we worked on. But we did have breakdowns, which got us into trouble sometimes. . . . Sometimes our weakside defense wasn’t alert. When we did trap the post, we weren’t in great position all of the time.”

TONIGHT

vs. Vancouver, 7:30

Fox Sports West

* Site--Great Western Forum.

* Radio--KLAC (570 AM).

* Records--Lakers 25-16; Grizzlies 7-34.

* 1999 Record vs. Grizzlies--1-1.

* Update--This is the first in the Lakers’ final three-games-in-three-nights series. On Tuesday they play in Oakland, on Wednesday they get to go to Portland, where they lost by 27 points last Tuesday.

* Tickets--Forum box office or TicketMaster (213) 480-3232.