The Lakers, the league's best defense since Jan. 15, will have to rely more on that end of the floor to generate transition offense.

After blowing huge leads in back-to-back games against Golden State and Charlotte, when the Nets got the Lakers down on Monday, they kept them down. The Nets put together a slump-busting 111-108 victory over the Lakers before a sellout crowd of 18,

"This is the problem when you're overcompensating for these other things that you are missing," said Simmons. "You can fly around, and you can look good in a Thursday night game, but it's not sustainable.