The Los Angeles Lakers suffered their first loss of the season on Tuesday night to the Portland Trail Blazers, 136-129.

The Lakers put up 129 points, which is more than enough to win an NBA game; however, they allowed the most points they have allowed this season.

While the offense has been sharp, ranked No. 2 in offensive rating through the first four games, their defense has been tough to watch. After Tuesday's contest, the Lakers rank 22nd in defensive rating at 117.6.

As many expected entering the season, the Lakers' offense has looked like a juggernaut, while their defense has been far more suspect. That has largely been the case through the early portion of the season.

Austin Reaves Reveals Key to Improving Lakers’ Transition Defense

The Lakers will look to change that on the defensive end. After the game, Austin Reaves spoke about the team's offensive strengths but acknowledged that the defense must improve, particularly in transition.

"You don't wanna think ‘Ah, but we can turn the ball over 20 times 'cause our offense is good,'" Reaves said.

If we can get that number down to 10 and get, 10 more shots on basket, our offense will be even better, and it'll also help our defense, transition defense. We still have to be mindful of turnovers. But yeah, offense has been good.”

The Lakers' offense has been elite; however, cutting down turnovers would make it even better while also improving their transition defense, as Reaves noted.

The Lakers took much better care of the ball as a team, having only 15 turnovers. Reaves himself had zero turnovers after having 13 alone in the first three games.

In the season, Reaves is averaging 3.3 turnovers per game.

Austin Reaves Makes No Excuses for Lakers’ Poor Defensive Performance

The Lakers' biggest issue has been their defense. Through four games, Los Angeles has been mediocre at best on that side of the ball.

To make matters worse, the defense has continued to trend in the wrong direction, even against a relatively weak schedule to start the season.

“I think it's been, good in spots." Reaves said regarding the Lakers physicality defensively.

"Like I said tonight, we didn't do our basic coverages the way we were supposed to. We had a lot of blown assignments. It was everybody, it wasn't just one person. I made some bad defensive mistakes. You could go around the room. So, [we] gotta be better.”

The Lakers were getting broken down and weren't disciplined enough about 'knowing their personnel.' Portland took advantage of that.

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