When Anthony Davis was knocked to the ground with his hands on his left knee, the Lakers' hearts went up and down to the throat eye. LeBron James and Russell Westbrook both said after the game that Davis' injury was not a big problem, after all, the current Lakers can't afford to hurt, but unfortunately, luck did not side with the Lakers.
The Lakers officially released the results of Davis's MRI examination today, and the results show that Davis will miss at least 4 weeks due to a strained medial collateral ligament in his left knee. This means that Davis will not return until late January at the earliest, and based on past experience, Davis is not unlikely to be absent for a longer time, and he may even wait until February next year to return.
In early March 2017, Kevin Durant, who was playing for the Warriors at the time, suffered the same injury, and the Warriors announced that Durant would be absent for at least four weeks. As a result, Durant missed 19 consecutive games and rested for almost 5 weeks before returning.
That Dynasty Warriors can afford Durant's long absence, but this Lakers are different. The timing of Davis' knee injury is really a bit out of place. Originally, the Lakers faced the dilemma of multiple injuries and isolation this season, and now Davis has also fallen injured, and the Lakers are missing a core figure at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends.
No matter how much the outside world criticizes Davis, and no matter how dazzling the Data of the Lakers losing 2.5 points per 100 rounds when Davis is on the court, Davis is always an indispensable member of this Lakers team. In the Lakers' rather deformed lineup, Davis's presence is the only choice for the Lakers to solve many problems, and whether he can play is directly related to the load and play of James and Westbrook, as well as the Playing Style and Performance of the Lakers in the decisive moment.
Everyone knows that with the characteristics and playing style of Wei Shao, he is not suitable for partnering with James and Davis, but the reason why the Zhan Mei combination in the offseason is to name Wei Shao, and the reason why the Lakers dare to make up their minds to make a big move in exchange for Wei Shao, is that Davis is willing to make sacrifices and play the role of center more. That is to say, in the Lakers' expectations, as long as Davis plays the fifth position and James is more up to the fourth position, they can solve the space problem brought by Westbrook.
Davis was injured and could not fight, directly bringing the Lakers a triple blow:
Wei Shao is missing a top-level interior line that can attack, eat cake and defend, and his power has declined significantly. The data shows that when Davis was on the floor, Westbrook had more assists and fewer turnovers per 36 minutes. Westbrook's scoring per 36 minutes was similar to Davis's absence, but without Davis holding back the defense, Westbrook's impact on the basket dropped significantly, and his shooting percentage plummeted from 58.6% when Davis was on the floor to 52.1%.
Due to the decline in Davis's movement rate after gaining weight in the offseason, coupled with the Lakers' loss of multiple defensive players after several operations, Davis played the fifth position defensively less effective than last season. However, Davis playing the fifth position will at least make the Lakers "ban" DeAndre Jordan. When Vogel insisted on letting Davis play more in the fifth position, dwight Howard playing the starting or substitute center as appropriate, the Lakers performed at least much better than Jordan Jr. when he played the fifth position. Jordan Jr. is on the floor this season, and the Lakers have lost 8.2 points in 100 rounds, and the offense and defense are all crotched.
Now that Davis has fallen, Vogel can only be forced to reactivate Jordan Jr. Whether Jordan Jr. starts or rotates to the top, the Lakers will definitely be hurt when he plays.
Vogel could certainly continue to ditch Jordan Jr., but that means James will have more time to move up to the fifth position. So far this season, James has played 97 minutes in the fifth position, during which the Lakers have won seven points. The effect of James playing center is difficult to describe, some games, the Lakers with James as the center of the play to completely open up the space, the offense is sharp, but on the defensive end, when James as the last line of defense is transferred away from the basket, the Lakers can only watch the opponent hit their basket.
If James plays center longer, his load will certainly increase. Originally, James playing center is a strange trick of the Lakers every game, if it becomes a conventional tactic, the effect will definitely decline as the opponent studies more thoroughly. In recent times, the Lakers' offensive efficiency has slipped to 106.7 points when James played center, which is far less strong than it was at the beginning.
So, what should the Lakers do next? Especially now that Howard, Munch, Reeves, Tucker Jr., Bradley, and Nunn are all in quarantine, Ariza's comeback still has no timetable, and the Lakers are facing a shortage of manpower.
According to previous reports, Nunn will not be able to return until January next year, so for now the Lakers can only hope that the other 5 players who are quarantined can return as soon as possible. When the five major rotation players return, and Ariza is expected to return this month, Vogel can at least think of ways to help the Lakers survive.
During the Davis truce, Vogel could only start from the perspective of platooning and tactical play, and helpEd Wei Shao exert more power as much as possible. For example, more let Westbrook be present with Ellington, Rivers, Munch and other shooters, and fully release Westbrook's breakthrough and tandem ability like the original rocket. In addition, with the current configuration of the Lakers' lineup, Vogel has no other tricks, and he can only hope that Wei Shao can play an efficient and all-round performance to support the team's offense.
In addition, the time has come to test Lakers general manager Pelinka. The Lakers' current performances, record and frequent injuries after Davis gained weight to hit the No. 5 position all prove that Pelinka's offseason reinforcement strategy is questionable. Next, it's up to Pelinka to make up for it.
It is rumored that the Lakers are interested in Players such as Jeramie Grant and Miles Turner, and Grant's forward and Turner's comprehensive playing style are indeed needed by the Lakers, but no one knows how they can exchange for Players of Grant and Turner's level through trades with the limited chips in the Hands of the Lakers.
Speaking of a thousand ways and ten thousand, because of the existence of Wei Shao, many of the Lakers' problems are already dead knots, and Davis's injury only makes this dead knot tighter. The Lakers can find ways to unleash The Power of Westbrook, but these methods are based on the premise of sacrificing defense.
As data analytics expert John Hollinger said when interpreting the Lakers before Davis was injured: "The Lakers can do as much as possible to make the team lineup look OK, but for this team to have a qualitative change, it is up to James and Davis to put on superhuman cloaks and regain their former dominance." ”
Now that Davis is injured, the Lakers can only count on James, who is about to turn 37. But at this age, can James still turn back into Superman?