On December 1, the Lakers beat the Kings 117-92 away from home, improving their record to 12-11. Before this game, the Lakers suffered a heavy blow, James tested positive for the new crown, missing at least 10 days of games. The last time the Lakers played the King, they still lost after 3 overtime. However, in this game, the Lakers in adversity burst out of huge energy. Howard, who had been holding back for a long time, finally broke out, and he contributed 12 points, 13 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks in this game, making a big contribution to the Lakers' victory. The Other Two Lakers' benches, Munch and Anthony, also performed well and were also heroes of the win.
The Lakers in the midst of adversity forced out three bench bandits, who became the key to the Lakers' win and blew up the Kings' second team. Munch had 22 points, four rebounds and four assists, six-of-10 shooting from three-point range, and Anthony had 14 points, one rebound and one assist.
The Lakers were a bit passive in the first half, and James' infection with the new crown did have a certain impact on the team. The Lakers trailed by eight points in the first quarter and trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half.
However, Munch threw in a 41-foot over-the-top three-pointer toward the end of the first half to help the Lakers close the gap to within 10 points, trailing 50-59. Howard propped up the inside in the first half and scored 10 points, otherwise the Lakers would have fallen behind even more in the first half. The Warcraft defensive end is also very aggressive, grabbing rebounds, steals and blocks.
The Lakers went on in the second half, with Munch, Westbrook and Davis setting off a wave of scoring. Thick-browed brother scored two goals in a row in the middle of the third quarter to help the Lakers reverse the score. Anthony scored five straight points in the final two minutes of the third quarter, Rondo scored on a layup, and the Lakers led by 13 points at the end of the third quarter.
The Lakers became more and more courageous, continued to extend the lead, and did not give the Kings a chance to turn around. In this game, the Lakers' two core thick eyebrow brothers and Wei Shao played steadily, fully stimulating the energy of role players. Of course, the happiest thing is that the energy of the Lakers bench bandits has been stimulated.
Taren Horton Tucker had a sluggish performance in this game with only 2 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists, 3 turnovers, plus-minus of -10.
By comparison, veteran Rondo had four points, four rebounds and one assist with plus-minus of +13. Adversity is also an opportunity for the Lakers to stimulate energy and force them to speed up the run-in.