In recent games, the Lakers' performance has improved a lot. This is not only reflected in the gradual rise and into the top eight of the west, behind the record, there are positive elements of Wei Shao's performance and progress at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends. After a series of adjustment attempts, Westbrook and the Lakers are gradually finding a relatively suitable match.
Today's game against magic is a manifestation of this progress. Although the thick eyebrows are injured and absent, and the Magic's defensive configuration is also the type of headache that Wei Shao has more headaches on the offensive end, which also affects Wei Shao's offensive efficiency, but Wei Shao can still maintain the efficiency of the standard line or so. And his collocation with James, is also gradually getting rid of the mutual constraints at the beginning of the season, even if today Westbrook did not shoot three-point shots, and James only shot 3 of 7, and the 3-point assist rate was only 33.3%, not forming a good space role under the line, but James's offensive performance is still maintained. And there's howard in the starting lineup. The shallowest basis for "Westbrook and James can't coexist" is that "three-pointers provide space," at least in the face of low-intensity opponents like the Magic, and there is already a ray of relief.
Today's Wei Shao, who did not perform well in terms of control errors, produced 5 turnovers in the whole game with 5 assists, the assist-to-turnover ratio is very ugly, and it is also contrary to his trend of improving the control of mistakes in the last ten games and has gone from 4.9 to 4 at the beginning of the season. It seems that the Magic team, which conceded 113.1 points per 100 rounds and ranked third from the bottom in the league, did not have the capital to defend Wei Shao into such a defense. But in fact, the offensive stability of Westbrook does not absolutely depend on the overall defensive level of the opponent, but also includes the "pickiness" of the defensive configuration.
In the 20-21 season, Westbrook was in the offensive alignment of the forward players for 5 minutes per game, making 1.6 turnovers and shooting 41.1%. This season, the average time per game to complete an attack under the front line has dropped to 3.9 minutes, but the turnover is still the same as last year's 1.5 times, and the shooting rate has also dropped to 39.6%. From the traditional concept of the spatial environment, the Wizards' three-point shooting and shooting rate in the 20-21 season are only in the league twenty-eighth and twenty-second, respectively, while this season's Lakers are twenty-first and thirteenth, and the Lakers are relatively more able to contain the opponent's defense and change defense, creating the side that wei shao has the best advantage to align, which is also reflected in the decline in the time of wei shao's forward alignment. The degree to which the team pulled on the wing of the forward line should not be a reasonable explanation for the decline in the level of alignment of the Westbrook forward.
The answer, then, is more likely to be for Wei Shao himself. Once, he could use his domineering physical abilities to hit tall men at startup speed, top small men with confrontational abilities, and forcibly break through opposing defenders of any size. Just like in the 15-16 season, when the Thunder's three-point level was only seventeenth in the league, Westbrook was still able to shoot as high as 61.1% from the basket. But now, due to age, a decline in physical fitness, and a mid-range shooting that has never been optimized to the level of conventional weapons and can only be used as a response (32.4% shooting rate from three-point shooting this season, and 15% from 22.4% for long two-point shooting), Westbrook's offensive frame level has inevitably been worn down, and the shooting rate of less than 10ft under the basket has dropped from 48.9% last season to 43.3% (and in the case of the Lakers' spatial environment is better than last year's Wizards), Westbrook's offensive frame level has inevitably been worn out, and the shooting rate under the basket has dropped from 48.9% last season to 43.3% (and in the case of the Lakers' spatial environment is better than last year's Wizards). This will directly lead to a decline in his overall offensive influence, which cannot be hedged by other means in the case of the main core.
This eventually caused his embarrassment in this era when the engine was the mainstream means, with an average of 29% of the ball attacks per game, averaging only 0.85 points per game, better than the 53.8% of players in the league, and it was not enough as the Lakers' main control. And a very important point is that the physical fitness declines, can no longer force the impact, and lack of rich three threats of the ball to shoot, Wei Shao in the response to the front size of the flanks, become very weak, in the physical confrontation is difficult to gain the upper hand, and the breakthrough start can not shake off the opponent. At the same time, Wei Shao's offensive and leading way is highly dependent on the points after the breakthrough success, and it is difficult to detect the opponent's flanking contraction movement at the first time, once the big premise cannot be successfully completed, it will fall into the embarrassment of subsequent handling of the ball, and it will be made a mistake in the confrontation of loss, narrow vision, and difficult choices. Last season, Westbrook's assist-to-turnover ratio in the offensive front line can still be maintained at 4.4/1.6, while this season it is only 2.8/1.5, weakening the trend to the naked eye.
But on the other hand, when it comes to catching the opposing defender, Wei Shao's physical fitness is still enough. This season, he can shoot 45.1% from the guard, not much down from 45.5% last year, and with the timing of alignment rising from 8.5 minutes to 9.2 minutes, the turnover has been controlled instead of 2.4 (compared to 2.7 last year). Therefore, we have seen a phenomenon: when playing against the guard group type team, Westbrook can often play very well, like in the game against the Spurs, the Spurs' four-guard lineup can not stop Westbrook at all, averaging 57.8% true shooting rate + 27.8% round share in two games, and in the three games against the first swing team Thunder, it averaged only 50.9% of the true shooting rate per game. From the point of view of 100 rounds of points lost, the fourteenth Spurs in the league is a better side than the twentieth Thunder, the only difference is from the difference between "multiple guards" and "multiple fronts"---- the four guards started, the fourth position is less than 2 meters Kelden Johnson Spurs, when the defense is less, the effect is bound to be inferior to the Thunder of Dort + three fronts.
Therefore, in today's game against the Magic, Westbrook's 5/5 assist-to-turnover ratio is not completely incomprehensible. Gary Harris was 1.93 metres at the back line, while Franzwagna and Wendelcat Jr. on the front line were both in the 2-2.10 metre range. When Westbrook took the ball and tried to develop and organize further, the Magic had enough size to oppress and interfere with his actions. On the other hand, it is precisely because of this that Wei Shao's 9 of the 18 shots have a unique value: in the face of opponents of the front group structure, his personal efficiency has finally risen to a level of more than a standard. The Lakers and Wei Shao can't expect all opponents to put up a multi-guard lineup, and they very much need Wei Shao to play such a "guarantee" as today.
Of course, the improvement of Wei Shao's performance against the front group is also importantly related to the Lakers' adjustment of the combination of James and Wei Shao. At the beginning of the season, the Lakers' idea is relatively simple, let Wei Shao and James take turns to act as each other's outside space point, in the first ten games, James and Wei Shao's average three-point shots per game are as high as 8.2 and 4.1 times, and the lack of a richer ball cooperation between each other, often forming a stagnant picture of "one person holding the ball, the other person squatting in the bottom corner".
The simplicity of the offense has led to the simplicity of defensive judgment, and the two's outside shooting rate is difficult to maintain: in the first ten games, Zhan Wei was only 34.7% and 26.8%, respectively. James's main attack is that Wei Shao's own three-point shooting level is not good; Wei Shao's main attack is based on the above physical limitations, which affects the cooperation effect of the whole team including James. This is obviously not the way to go, and the performance of Westbrook's 102.1 percent-point shots + 47.6% true shooting rate + 1.61 assists to turnover ratio must be optimized.
Through positive run-in and the accumulation of time, we have indeed seen corresponding progress: the rise of James' control, the enrichment and rationalization of Wei Shao's no-ball and catch. In the last five games, Westbrook has averaged 29.3 front-court touches, 5.5 seconds per round, and 4.58 seconds per touch, down from 32.9, 6.8 and 4.81 in the entire season, and the number of passes has also dropped from 58.2 to 53.8, while James's passing has risen from 61.7 to 65.3.
On the other hand, after handing over the ball, Wei Shao has not done a lot of work: this season, his proportion of no-ball cuts has increased from 1.3% last year to 4.1%, the number of no-ball covers is also higher than last season, and in recent games, it has further increased, which has enhanced Wei Shao's effective presence on the no-ball side, and no longer needs the so-called space of the "crouching corner + inefficient three-pointer" style that is better than nothing. James's possession of the ball in his hand is conducive to exerting the vision and reading ability of his organizational master, and can also turn the empty shooter position after Wei Shao's cover and the opportunity after cutting into a real and reasonable shot.
Ball-holding blocking + AD long two-pointers / down + no-ball empty cut, is also the Lakers' championship season offensive method. Moreover, a relatively rare offensive method in the previous season is: James holds the ball, blocks and dismantles, reads the flow of defenders in the case of his own strong side three threats and thick eyebrows, and once he sees Thato catching a favorable defender's back pass, such a "disguised roll call strategy".
This season, when Westbrook attacked the backcourt, he still had a 40.8% shooting percentage and a 2.54 assists turnover ratio of 2.8/1.1, which was relatively positive and not unavailable. And Westbrook's increased no-ball side cover attempts (an average of 1 cover assist per game, only 0.4 times last season), even if it can't create a direct pitcher to catch the ball and score, can sometimes force out the opponent's change of defense, and change the defender in front of him from a sharp soldier who specializes in dealing with his own breakthrough to a small defender chasing the shooter, which further increases the "James out of the ball to Westbrook, burst the defender" Another routine.
Wei Shao still completes singles and holds the ball, and does not rely on simple responses such as "catching the ball and shooting". In fact, in the past five games, Westbrook's catch jump shot has been 1.8 times, down from 2.3 times in the season, and the 31.3% season shooting rate also makes his skill not worth defending. Instead, on the 10ft shot under the basket, Westbrook scored 51.2% of the film and 52.4% of the shooting rate, higher than the season average of 48.7% and 50.9%.
The recent Wei Shao, does not rely on receiving the ball to shoot, nor does it hold the ball in hand, thus becoming a strong focus defensive object of the opponent, exposing the problem of his own lack of defense and follow-up processing limitations, but handing over the first hand ball right, through empty cutting, running, covering, grasping the strong alignment, believing that James's instantaneous reading of the field, completing the secondary ball holding attack under favorable circumstances, so as to launch its own system, or simply cut into the end of the catch.
In this way, the chemistry between James and Westbrook is relatively better. When the dual core can relatively operate its own main attack mode, and produce more linkage, creating a rotating attack with echoes, the pressure on defensive rotation, resource distribution, and coordination tacit understanding will naturally increase. In the sample of the whole season, Wei Shao received only 11.9% of james's passing, shooting only 28.8%, and his own passing to James was 14.5% + 55.8% shooting rate. In the last five games, Westbrook's situation with James has increased to 25.4% + 30% shooting, and the pass to James has reached 28.4% + 66.7%.
It can be seen that although Wei Shao's own offensive efficiency is not ideal, his bonus to James when he holds the ball has been re-optimized, and the number of interactions between the two has also become better, no longer an isolated and divided play with two cores taking turns to attack. In the last ten games, Westbrook's assist rate has risen from 26.4% at the beginning of the season to 36.2%, the proportion of three-point shots has been pressed down from 22.5% to 19.3%, the proportion of mid-range shots has been pressed down from 17.9% to 10.9%, and the proportion of paint points has increased from 50.5% to 55.8%. At the same time, the assist-to-turnover ratio was better controlled, rising from 1.61 to 2.03. On James's side, in the face of increased control, the assist rate has increased from 36.8% at the beginning of the season to 47.4%.
The opening of Wei Shao and James has increased the effective linkage, creating an ideal state for the two to take turns to make cakes and alternately lead the team. Such a wei shao is undoubtedly conducive to the Lakers and James returning to the successful model of that year, and it should also be a partial realization of the Lakers' purpose of "letting James fight less and attack harder". Even, if the Lakers put up the ultimate lineup of James to play five, the space of the other three points will be the best candidate, leaving James and Wei Shao to break through the open space of linkage, and the Lakers' offense can play more content.
On the defensive end, Wei Shao's changes are more intuitive, more active around the cover, chasing no-ball people, and reducing rebounding and scrambling. The most typical manifestation is the rebounding rate in the backcourt, which dropped from the initial 17.1% to 11.1% in the last ten games, but brought about an improvement of 107.2 to 106.4 points conceded per 100 rounds. When a more aggressive, chasing Wei Shao appeared, the Lakers posed a three-guard formation to have a better effect. On the defensive end, the advantage of the three guards is the speed of reaction, but if one link continues to leak, then the other two points have too much work to fill the leak, and it does not have the effect of rotating interference that is always pulled. Especially in the case that the Lakers' three guards are not perfect, and The little Tucker has a steel cannon body, but his consciousness is not good, and his elasticity is not perfect.
At present, Wei Shao, of course, can not perform a good task of changing defenses, but as long as he does not miss the attacker in the basic alignment and reduces the burden of others to fill the gap, the three defenders can more or less run. On the offensive end, when Westbrook and James linked up to achieve the pull of the opponent, players like Tucker Jr. also had the conditions to steal some attack frame opportunities, alleviating the congestion problem of the team's "three guards, but no basket".
Like today against the Magic, Tucker came up with 7 of 14, and even the three-pointers he wasn't good at were 3-of-6. In the last three games, Tucker's shooting rate has exceeded 50%, which is not as useless as he was. The increased cooperation effect of Zhan Wei has given Tucker more room to steal chickens, and tucker's integration of Zhan Wei on the offensive end provides the capital for his defensive end to continue experimenting - if you don't consider the elderly Ariza, the steel cannon tucker is almost the only flank defender of the Lakers, unless the Lakers are willing to use James or Anthony to consume themselves on the defensive end for a long time, so even if the little Tucker's defensive awareness is worse now, the Lakers have no other choice.
Compared with the last 20 games, Tucker's 100-round loss points have increased from 107.2 to 104.8, and the last five games are the third in the team with 99.7 points, behind Jordan Jr. and his backcourt partner Bradley. Today, for the Magic, Tucker scored 85.9 points in this statistic, the highest in the Lakers' regular rotation. Especially against a tall frontcourt team like the Magic, Tucker Jr.'s upward defensive value based on the size of the defender was reflected.
Against the Magic, everything was fine, and the Lakers didn't even need thick eyebrows to get their opponents. But at the same time, we also have to see: the attack and defense of magic are really too weak. Not to mention the gains and losses at the end level, the magic is not good in all specific links. The main ball carrier, Cole Antoni, can score 5.6 assists, but it has to bring 3 mistakes, and the assist errors are not less than compared with the low tide of Wei Shao, which is still relatively immature, and today is also a 5/3 performance. The team had 33.5% of the defensive rounds to shoot at the opponent's empty position, and the three-point shot was 16.1%, ranking first and second in the league. In fact, this also weakens to a certain extent the long-term reference value of Wei Shao's normal offensive performance in the face of the tall defensive lineup today.
Offensively, the Magic's main score point, Wagner Jr., and Gary Harris, who started today and played 32 minutes, have a fixed-point jump shot ratio of 28.6% and 30.3%, respectively, while the tall Wagner only shot 48.7% from the basket and only 0.8 without a ball cut. This style of play, the efficiency of the basket, somewhat wasted Wagner's stature advantage, and the team's second-in-command attacker with 12.2 shots also made the Magic's offense a lot less room for change. Today's Wagner also intentionally increased his own interior output, trying to seize the lakers' little Jordan time cut, Howard's limited physical strength, three guard-based small lineup weaknesses, so that he can play a higher advantage, but the efficiency is only 8+ 4 mistakes in 18, and the problem of confrontation ability is still exposed.
For the Lakers, the physical disadvantage of the three guards is hedged by the opponent's playing style and intensity, and the shortcomings of Tucker Jr. (also including Wei Shao) whose defensive awareness and cooperation are still limited are alleviated by the relatively simple routine of the Magic. In this way, the shortcomings of the little Tucker are covered up, and the characteristics of the strong are reflected - no need for a lot of judgment, just need to work hard to interfere, to the top.
The Lakers are on the right track, but the ceiling still needs to be broken. How to solve the offensive problem of Westbrook attacking multi-front teams? Strong teams will have better ability to work together, often even with a top sweep inside line, further improving the talent level of Westbrook's bitter defenders. And once Wei Shao's attack cannot be opened, his linkage effect with James is bound to decline, and even James cannot find his advantage to align, no matter how to force the rotation to change, it will be changed to a disadvantage. Or, when faced with a smaller team with a sweeper, such as the Grizzlies' Jalan Jackson Jr., who scored 103.9 points per 100 rounds alone with a team of 23rd defensive efficiency, 62 of all players, and completed 3.2 interfering three-point shots, and 27 in the league, Westbrook's development would also be affected, and thus forced to further downgrade on the basis of predetermined status.
In recent games, Westbrook has shot less than 10 opponents, namely Dort + Gidey + Beziley + Earl's Thunder (leading the defensive tip + 2 meters above the front, Alexander is also close to 2 meters), the Grizzlies with Jalen Jackson as the sweeper, and the Clippers with Reggie + George + Morris + Ibaka. And once in the playoffs, the opponent will only be more perfect and rigorous. Moreover, on the defensive end, the Lakers' deteriorated version of the combination of defensive three guards will also judge the lack of response before the opponent's richer changes in position.
Moreover, for the defense that is really unusable on the flanks, the little Tucker who "has to go up", when he leaves the good coordination between Westbrook and James and pulls the defensive space, his own attack will also fall back. In the Grizzlies, Thunder, and Clippers, tucker Jr., although not inefficient, has made less than 10 shots. And once it came to the Celtics
The game, hoping to get him to carry more shots, immediately came up with a 4 of 15. Due to the too narrow shooting area and the difference in passing level, Tucker Jr. still has a hard time shouldering the second main offensive responsibility when Wei Shao is weak.
But in any case, at least the Lakers are on the "right path." Of course, it is far from the road to the championship, but at the very least, there are wins and losses, which should not allow the Lakers to repeat the infighting at the beginning of the season.