There are no nights off in the Southeastern Conference, and LSU, coming in having lost three of its last four matches, wasn’t handed any sort of relief when it faced Alabama on Saturday.
On the contrary, Alabama, one of the best and fastest offenses in the country, made LSU’s defense work hard on every play. Though the Tigers kept it contentious early, Alabama kept scoring en route to a 109-88 win.
The Tigers weren’t completely outclassed against Alabama, though the difference in offensive firepower eventually did overpower them.
LSU isn’t the first team to be thoroughly victimized by Alabama, which is coming off a win over No. 8 Auburn. On the season, the Crimson Tide rank No. 4 in the nation in scoring.
“They just have weapons at every position on the floor,” head coach Matt McMahon said before the game.
Alabama’s lowest point total in any game this season is 71, a benchmark LSU has only semi-regularly hit this season (12 times in 20 games).
Alabama’s offensive success starts at the 3-point line, where it’s one of the most prolific teams in the game.
Alabama attempts 29.1 3-pointers per game, No. 11 in the nation, converting at an elite rate of 38.8%, No. 14 in the country. The Crimson Tide have a bevy of shooters, with five different rotation players making over 36% of their 3-pointers on two or more attempts per game.
On the season, LSU has played just two other teams in the top 100 in 3-point attempts per game: Texas A&M, who interestingly shoots a bottom-10 percentage of 26.5%, and Dayton, who has made 40.1% of its 3-pointers, No. 5 in the country.
When LSU played sharpshooting Dayton, the Tigers were ultimately sunk by 3-point shooting, as the Flyers hit a long-distance game winner with 4.1 seconds remaining.
The same happened against Alabama. The Crimson Tide led an onslaught of speed and scoring, and it all began from beyond the arc, where they made 14 3-pointers on 34 attempts.
Mark Sears, the SEC’s leading scorer on the season, led the Tide with 21 points. Latrell Wrightsell Jr., Aaron Estrada and Rylan Griffen added 19, 18 and 12 points with five, two and four 3-pointers made, respectively.
Alabama’s skill from beyond the arc is lethal not only because of the 3-pointers it generates, but also because of how it forces the defense to play its shooters.
Defenders are forced to either allow a 3-pointer or close out hard on pump fakes and fly past Alabama’s shooters, allowing them to drive and take advantage.
That’s a particularly difficult choice to make with Sears. As perimeter-oriented as his game is, Sears is a hard-nosed guard who wants to get downhill. He punished LSU on the inside on many occasions, even as the Tigers tried to defend him by committee.
“He puts so much pressure on your defense… his quickness and explosiveness off the bounce,” McMahon said.
Even in the early going when LSU held serve, Alabama had a clear advantage in that the Tide dictated the pace of the game. The Crimson Tide play fast and push immediately downcourt off of rebounds, turnovers and even made baskets.
That, and Alabama’s physical defense, forced LSU to match the pace and play a style it wasn’t accustomed to playing. The Tigers were clearly forced to operate their offense with more speed and make quicker decisions than usual.
Given those circumstances, LSU commended itself well. The Tigers initially did a good job of making plays quickly under pressure, zipping the ball around and finding open shots.
In the first 18 minutes of the game, the Tigers finished with an impressively low total of three turnovers. Fast tempo typically leads to mistakes, even for Alabama, who averages the third-most turnovers in the SEC.
For much of the game, LSU managed to avoid that pitfall. The offense was efficient and smooth in the first half, especially operating out of the pick-and-roll.
As a team, the Tigers shot 42.3% from the floor and 39.3% from beyond the arc, led by Mike Williams III with 16 points and Derek Fountain with 14.
Eventually, though, the pace and skill of Alabama wore on LSU, and the Crimson Tide pulled away, starting with the end of the first half. Alabama stretched a two-point lead to six in the final minutes, momentum that it carried to a dominant second half.
Though defense was clearly the main issue, LSU struggled again with finishing at the rim, shooting 13 of 32 on layups.
LSU has now lost four of its last five games and has a record of 3-4 in SEC play, 11-9 overall.
The schedule will ease up slightly as the Tigers’ next game comes at home to an Arkansas squad that isn’t up to the level of Eric Musselman’s teams of the past. The Razorbacks are 10-10 on the season and 1-6 in the SEC.
