The Lakers' game with the Lone Ranger, whether it is watching live broadcasts or watching videos, they all think that the Lone Ranger is playing OK, the ball Lone Ranger can lose, the low emotional intelligence statement is that the Lone Ranger is too iron - of course, for them this season, this is not a new thing - the high emotional intelligence statement is that from the second quarter, some details the Lakers handled better, Westbrook's calmness was shocking, and the Lone Ranger made some mistakes, such as Bo Shen and Klebel rebounding a piece, resulting in a hand, so there was Ellington to invest overtime three points, Hardaway's fast-attack handling of the ball is even more difficult to say and so on.
The Lone Ranger has some advantages in platooning:
Due to the overall smaller Lakers lineup, the suppression of the Lone Ranger talent in the past is gone;
Because the Lakers always have a very low frequency of participation in tactics, the three-point line lacks a threatening backcourt player on the floor, Porzingis can always play against such a player to participate in the basket - Boshin this time is Bradley, Bazemore, Westbrook, 3 three-point total 2 of 10 - let him play a high defensive value.
You can take a look at Bo Shen's position:
There is a big man with good mobility sweeping, combined with a bold pinch Zhan Mei, the lone ranger's defense makes the Lakers play quite uncomfortable. Moreover, the Lone Ranger completely blocked the rebounds, allowing the Lakers to play one of the worst second offenses of the season. Although there are rotation errors in individual rounds that cause people to leak, or the rotation starts slowly, there is no obvious problem on the surface.
In turn, the Lakers' defensive problems are still exposed, and the story plot of "taking you to know the whole league guard" is still the same. Moreover, the problem of this defensive guard is not only the problem of online alignment ability and small lineup defense, but also a lot of disciplinary and selection problems, such as mistakes in changing defenses, no one to take care of external demolitions, rotation errors, etc. The Lone Ranger only shot 27.3% of the three-point shooting rate is too bad.
There are two issues worth paying attention to here:
James plays center, how is the Lakers' defensive strategy appropriate?
In terms of size, in the context of the league's overall small ball, James is no problem as a center in the connection section, he can be a low top center, but also can change the defensive guard. But the super small lineup has a hard injury in configuration, too many defenders at the same time, there is no other defensive forward to break the block with James, the result is that James is not every round of defense to choose to change defense, but to use a closer to the traditional center to take into account the method of one defense and two. After all, James is not a full-time center, and this defensive demolition strategy is not a way he is very familiar with.
The thick-browed defense is regressing.
Due to the lakers' overall defensive resources declining, thick eyebrows have to top a center for a longer time, and it is true that he has more defensive pressure than in the past. But this does not fully explain the decline in his defense, the mobility is indeed not as good as in the past, even at the critical moment, after the increase in intensity and concentration, the choice is still wrong.
At the end of the fourth quarter and overtime of this game, the Lakers' overall defense improved a lot, the mistakes made before have improved a lot in this period, Reeves and Westbrook have contributed very bright single defense and co-defense, and as a result, thick eyebrows a co-defense error allowed the Lone Ranger to equalize the score - in the case of James's single defense Bronson completely out of position, the team led by 3 points, why did thick eyebrows miss Kleber in this scale recovery?
Even if the ball is scored by Bronson, the Lakers are still ahead, and they have the last goal to take the initiative. The large-scale recovery actually gave Kléber a big vacancy in this game and equalized.
Having said all this, I have been mentioning the Lakers' question, and it is estimated that some readers have been angry - usually, the winning party reads the article to see how to blow. But the questions I asked, and the one I wrote about the Lakers Clippers before, actually confirm one thing - the confidence in the Lakers has increased a little. You can see that in the critical phases of the game, they can correct disciplinary errors during regular time, and if there is a configuration improvement in some key positions, some problems can be solved. The Lakers' defense at the beginning of the season was much worse than it is now, and with the improvement of the overallity has improved, this trend is good.
Finally, let's talk about Wei Shao.
Since entering December, Westbrook has changed, the 6-game round share has dropped to 22.1%, the average panel data per game is only 15.5 points + 6.2 rebounds + 8 assists + 4.3 turnovers + 0.7 steals + 0.3 blocks, almost every one of them has a certain degree of decline, 54.2% true shooting rate and 1.85 assist-to-loss ratio is close to November, and has not achieved "production reduction and efficiency". When he was on the floor at the same time as James, the embarrassing problem of not holding the ball did not fundamentally improve, and when James was not on the floor, he still could not lead the team.
Still, I think Westbrook is much better than at the beginning of the season, and there are fewer inexplicable leaks on the defensive end — a few rebounding and steals data declines are positive phenomena for stars — and the effect of blocking and demolition has also improved. The team is trying to find the problem of positional offensive incompatibility when he and James are on the court at the same time, and at present, it seems that there are mainly two ways:
In terms of configuration, try to ensure that the players outside of Zhan Wei are shooters, which is why the Lakers' big center uses less and less. In addition to providing space, the multi-shooter can also receive Wei Shao when Wei Shao is released to receive the ball, so that he will not be too embarrassed;
Wei Shao makes a lubricant, starting the hand to deal cards, playing no ball to connect the strong and weak sides, so that Zhan Mei's pinched ball can be more easily to the bottom corner, or by the fixed point to break through the second launch.
At present, it seems that these methods do have some effect, but the premise is that the Lakers shooters and James's own three-point crosshairs are basically online.
However, Westbrook is still a big mistake maker after the reduction of the ball, which is really not supposed to be, because the most important point of playing the role of lubricant is to make fewer mistakes.
In the overtime game with the Lone Ranger, the Lakers can win, and Wei Shao has made the right choice many times, which has played a big role. The Lakers' offensive problem in this game is also mentioned above, the Lone Ranger has the advantage of the platoon deployment, they pinch to force James to play the ball, empty the non-shooters including Wei Shao, so that Porzingis remains under the basket and becomes the last line of defense.
The Lakers responded this way in overtime:
Thick eyebrows picked up James out of the ball to cut in, Bo Shen assisted in the defense of the position, sealed the attack basket and shooting angle, at this time Wei Shao did not stay in the bottom corner, but very clever slipped the bottom line to the basket, thick eyebrows found him;
In the next round, the Lakers pushed the conversion, the alignment was too late to find, the electric fan was less than wei, he chose to block the demolition with the thick eyebrows, changed Kleber to his own body, and exchanged the electric fan for the thick eyebrows. Wei Shao did not play Kléber himself, but calmly went to the ball to go deep into the basket, with a thick eyebrow with a misalignment advantage, and a strong hand.
The last two rounds are even more impressive. First of all, the Lakers were almost defended into 24 seconds, and Wei Shao's quick three-point shot in the left bottom corner was hit - this is nothing to say, the key is the next round, after James was clipped out of the ball, Wei Shao got an empty position in the left bottom corner - just shot the position, with the opportunity to kill, how tempting is this?
One thought becomes a demon, and one thought becomes a Buddha.
Wei Shao actually put up with it, he actually put up with it!!!
He loves to be a hero the most, gave up the opportunity to kill in the big empty position in the bottom corner, and chose to break through, Reeves is even more clever to lift from the weak side bottom corner, so that Wei Shao can see himself, and the high-quality decision-making of the two at the key moment has the final kill!
In overtime, Wei Shao made all the choices right, which is remarkable, which is also what the Lakers need him to continue to do - the Lakers do not lack people who open mountains and split stones, James is in good shape, and Wei Shao is indeed not the past Wei Shao, this background can not be changed, so unfortunately, Wei Shao can only play a much smaller role than in the past, and most people believe that Wei Shao is not good at doing this.
But being good at it and not trying are two different things, not being able to do well and trying to do the best, and the difference is not just the emotional intelligence expressed, it has its practical significance.
Aside from the big heart of Reeves, this is probably the biggest gain for this game, the Lakers.