On December 13, Beijing time, the Lakers played at home against the Magic, this battle Davis continued to be absent, the first quarter of the game Lakers fell into trouble, played a 7-0 start, was played by the Magic a wave of 10-0 and finally upgraded to 19-4 attack wave, the first quarter of the Lakers 18-25 behind. The Lakers made 5 mistakes throughout the first quarter, and the competitive state was extremely poor.
Entering the second half, the Lakers' offensive end finally began to recover, Anthony frequently won free throws in the low position, shooter Ellington could hit three points, and the Lakers played a wave of 7-0 to overturn the score, and the game fell into a state of stalemate. Then, during James' rest, Westbrook scored a difficult layup with the ball, Wendel carter directly hit a three-point shot at Howard, and Lopez also made Howard foul, making 2 of 2 free throws.
In the final 3 minutes before the end of the half, James came back on the court, magic Rose hit a three-pointer, and then James assisted Bradley to hit a three-pointer in return, but Cole Anthony then held the ball and hit a three-pointer, at this time the score was 48-43, the Lakers trailed and entered the timeout stage. In the few rounds after the timeout, Rose made Anthony a three-point foul, 2-of-3 from the free throws, and James quickly broke through the scoring response, scoring four consecutive points, and the Lakers fell behind 49-52 at halftime.
The Lakers were at a disadvantage most of the time in the first half, the key to the problem is that the Lakers themselves, unable to play a high-intensity and stable defense, the first quarter was actually blasted by the opponent out of a wave of 19-4, which shows the collapse of the Lakers' defensive end. At the same time, its own offensive downturn, relying on two veteran James and Anthony to save the field, melon hit 2 three-pointers, 5 out of 3 to get 10 points and 1 rebound, James was 8 out of 5 to get 11 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists, the pair of Xuan Di two old combination of 13 in 8 of the half cut 21 points and 8 rebounds, is the only two points in the Lakers to score double-figures, the two add up to 73 years old, but became the Lakers' scoring pillar, although outstanding, but also reflected the Lakers a little helpless.
Of course, the Lakers' sluggish performance is also related to Davis's continuous absences, after all, Davis has averaged 24 points and 10 rebounds per game this season, although the three-point shooting performance is temporarily poor, but Davis is currently the Lakers' most threatening point of possession, which is very effective. But Vogel can not be in the absence of Davis, the goal of this Lakers at this stage will only be to impact the championship, other players also need to have ability, Vogel as a coach needs to come up with ways to stimulate the ability of other players, because the lack of a player will completely collapse, this is not a championship team should have performance.
(Lin Xiaoxiang)