Beijing time on December 12, after defeating the Thunder yesterday, the Lakers' record this season came to 14 wins and 13 losses, ranking 6th in the West, and the Lakers of course hope to be able to complete the transformation by relying on a big win, and then open a wave of consecutive wins and become a real championship contender. But for the Lakers, the real test may not begin now, because after tomorrow's game with the Magic, the Lakers will usher in a devil's schedule.
The Lakers will face the Magic of 14th in the East at home tomorrow, and after that, their opponents are the Lone Ranger, Timberwolves, Bulls, Suns, Spurs, Nets, of which the Lone Rangers, Bulls, Suns, and Nets are the undisputed strong teams this season, and the Spurs, although they do not have the scenery of the past, are still a hard bone, as for the Timberwolves, although they have now lost 5 consecutive games, but considering the last time they met the Lakers to lose miserably to the opponent, and Towns said in public yesterday that he did not want to lose again, In the face of the Timberwolves who may have to go all out, the Lakers still can't be careless.
This period of the devil schedule is very critical for the Lakers, the last time the Eastern 5 consecutive away Lakers record is not good, directly fell out of the top four in the West, and now the Lakers are only ranked seventh in the West, once in this schedule to lose more and win less, it may even fall out of the top eight in the West. Of course, from another level, this wave schedule is a touchstone for the Lakers, to see how much gap they have with the current league's top teams, and if the gap is large, then it may accelerate the Lakers' steps in finding a deal.
According to the latest news, the Lakers and Pacers have talked about the Miles Turner deal, which shows that the Lakers are already preparing to upgrade their lineup, but what many people don't understand is that the Lakers seem to lack a tall 3D front at this stage, and the inside line already has three highs, but why should they start from the inside line to strengthen first? The answer can probably be obtained from the data of the Lakers' last 4 games, and the key to the problem lies in Jordan Jr.
Although the Lakers have only achieved a record of 2 wins and 2 losses in the last 4 games, the offensive and defensive efficiency is actually comprehensively improved, and in these 4 games, Vogel has not let Jordan Jr. start. According to statistics, since the Lakers removed Jordan Jr. from the starting lineup, the team's offensive efficiency ranked 9th in the league (previously 24th), defensive efficiency 5th (previously 19th), and net worth ranked 5th (previously 24th), which once again proved that when Jordan Jr. was on the floor, it was actually more harmful than beneficial to the Lakers.
Since coming to the Lakers, Jordan Jr. although playing quite actively, but the influence of both ends of the attack and defense is really limited, to the playoffs, it is difficult to believe that he can become a player in the Lakers who can affect the game, and with Davis playing the fifth position is not good, the Lakers still need a high-quality starting center, plus the Pacers plan to rebuild, if you can get Turner, it will indeed bring a huge upgrade to the Lakers.
Because in the current league, the Lakers are one of the few teams that pay more attention to the interior line, can really build tactics around thick eyebrows and Turner, so far this season, Turner can average 13.1 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game, with extremely excellent blocking ability, what is more frightening is that Turner's three-point shooting rate this season is as high as 39.8%, and he can average 1.9 three-pointers per game, he can not only create an interior no-fly zone with thick eyebrows, but also make up for the decline in thick eyebrow three-point ability.
Of course, considering the Lakers' current chips, it is difficult to say whether they can finally get Turner, but it is certain that the next Devil's schedule, once the Lakers realize that they are still insurmountable gap from the real championship winning team, then I believe that the next step of trade reinforcement will soon come.