It’s not often a team seeks vengeance on an opponent it has already beaten.But LSU’s late-season demise Wednesday against Vanderbilt can be traced back to the Feb. 21 game against Auburn, according to LSU players and coach Trent Johnson. And Saturday afternoon will be a fitting opportunity to address that problem when LSU travels to Auburn (20-10, 9-6) for the regular season finale. LSU beat Auburn, 79-72, in the PMAC on Feb. 21, but the win marked the midpoint of a two-week stretch that saw the No. 11 Tigers (25-5, 13-2) eke out six wins by 7 points or less in Southeastern Conference play.LSU coach Trent Johnson said he has seen some slack in team defense in the weeks since the Tigers’ first tangle with Auburn”Our defensive rotations and our sense of urgency were lacking on certain possessions,” he said. “Where we’ve been able to survive and win games is that offensively, we’ve had some guys step up and make some huge plays. Sometimes when the ball is going down it hides a little bit of what’s going on at the other end of the floor.”Johnson isn’t the only one to notice. Senior guard Garrett Temple, LSU’s 2009 “All-Glue” defender, said the Tigers’ defense has been slipping since Auburn left town.”We’ve been able to get a couple of wins, but you can look back at those games that could have been losses … [Wednesday] we just didn’t do what we needed to do to win games,” Temple said.Auburn is the SEC’s new hot team. Auburn has won seven of its last eight games — their only loss coming to LSU — and could finish the regular season as high as second in the conference standings.”We have to go down there and get back to what we’ve been doing to get to this point,” said senior guard Marcus Thornton. “The loss against Vanderbilt opened a lot of eyes around this team … we hated to lose on senior night, but going into these games we have something to work on and something to practice on.”Thornton is likely hoping to get back to his usual scoring self. His 18 points against Vanderbilt could be considered an off night. LSU’s top scorer shot just 36.8 percent from the field in the loss and made just 1-of-6 shots from the three-point arc. The timely shots that have fueled the Tigers’ championship season didn’t fall for the team as a whole against the Commdores. LSU shot 15 percent from long range with the exception of sophomore guard Bo Spencer’s 4-of-9 night.But Johnson said the Tigers can’t let a bad night affect the game plan. “Offensively I’m always going to give guys freedom when the ball is going down,” Johnson said. “I’m not changing that — I’m not worried about that end of the floor … We need to really ratchet it up a notch defensively and not have as many breakdowns.”A win Saturday and a respectable appearance in next weekend’s SEC tournament could do wonders for Auburn’s postseason hopes, although it’s far from a sure thing.”Every game from here on out, we have a target on our backs,” Thornton said. “Teams would like to beat us because that will probably increase their tournament hopes. We have to match that intensity.”As the SEC regular season champion, LSU has a No. 1 seed and a first-round bye secured in the SEC tournament. But Temple said there’s plenty to play for in the regular season’s final 40 minutes.”Auburn is a one-game season. They’re playing well. We don’t have any reason not to be up for them,” he said. “We’re trying to prove to ourselves that we can play, and we want to go out with a bang.”——Contact David Helman at [email protected]