Details in Tyson Chandler's Game Key to Winning

Tyson Chandler helped the Lakers to their last win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. He doesn’t need to score, or block a high rate of shots, but it’s the fundamentals to his game that can help the Lakers get wins while building team chemistry. He is their advanced hustle stats man.

At the last roundtable, Tim, Alex, and I all mentioned the importance of rebounding and boxing out. Against the Timberwolves, Tyson Chandler finished with 2 points and 9 rebounds in 23 minutes of play. While that may seem a bit meager, we’ll look at the numbers that affected the game.

Hustle Stats:

Tyson Chandler led the team with 7 box-outs in just 23 minutes of play.

5 offensive rebounds, led the team, 9 total rebounds.

4 screen assists, led the team.

7 contested 3-point shots, led the team.

11 overall contested shots, 3rd on the team.

He finished 3rd with net rating of +6, behind Josh Hart (+11) and Rajon Rondo (+10).

Effect on the team:

This helped give the Lakers a +5 advantage in rebounding by halftime, and +7 overall to finish the game. The Lakers play a possession game, where the transition rate is so overwhelming for the opponent, they just need enough total possessions to get out there and run. The Laker pace has slowed a bit, from just over 106 to 100 possessions per game from the first Timberwolves game to last night. The ability to get one-and-out defensive possessions and not give up offensive rebounds is critical on reduced pace. Chandler’s ability to hit the offensive glass helps prevent being ran against, reducing the rate of transition opportunities for the opponent and exploiting poor transition defense by the team.

Screen assists:

He also did a great job of helping teammates getting open shots. Here’s KCP’s best look at an open shot. Look at the distance he has between his defender on the catch.

Or the space between Lonzo and his primary defender, Derrick Rose on this chin lob.

Here, Chandler sets the screen and seals off Jimmy Butler completely. More importantly, he doesn’t pop to an open area or roll to the hoop. This delay led to the switch of Karl Anthony-Towns onto Ingram. Ingram exploited the mismatch.

Post Defense:

The Lakers have sorely needed a player that could hold post position defensively. Just buying time helps the team take advantage of their length and forcing turnovers. Here, Tyson holds ground, and Ingram ends up with the steal.

Karl Anthony-Towns, tried again.

Additional details:

There are other details that are even less obvious. We have back-to-back plays here. Minnesota scores, but look how Chandler is surveying the offense and constantly checking between man and basketball. Once the shot is up, he doesn’t dive straight into the paint, he looks for someone to box out.

In the second play, Kuzma gets free and finishes with a dunk. Chandler, is on a delayed dive to the hoop. If the help defense arrives early, Tyson creates an option offensively and is open for the dump-off for the finish.

Winning Plays:

There are three things here. Watch how Chandler sprints to set the screen and KAT doesn’t catch up. The leads to an immediate switch with KAT on LeBron. It’s the sprint that leads to the switch. This, isn’t the only mismatch here. Now it’s Andrew Wiggins vs. Tyson Chandler in the paint. This is an easy box-out for Chandler. Note how Wiggins is under the backboard, while Chandler is facing away from the hoop. This directly leads to additional offensive rebound opportunities. The last play shows Chandler leveraging KAT to get the last tap out

These are the plays that lead directly to wins. Defense is still an issue. Offense is being masked by transition opportunities and points in the paint. Acquiring Tyson Chandler was key to getting just a few more open shots, a few defensive stops, and a few additional offensive possessions. That, is enough to get over the hump and win games.

*Special thanks to nba.com/stats for the hustle stats

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Details in Tyson Chandler’s Game Key to Winning

Mike Garcia