It was Staples' last game before the name change, and the Lakers were beaten by the Spurs 110-138, and the fourth quarter score was blasted down by the Spurs by 140 points. The Lakers' poor defense is vividly reflected in this game, and after watching this game, it is difficult for you to imagine that such a Lakers team was still a championship team two seasons ago.
This game is the first time since James joined the Lakers that the first 33 games did not win more than 50% of the season, this game James crazy shot nearly 30 times, but in the case of 26 shots to shoot 15 goals, James still failed to lead the team to win this game. Is it that James doesn't want to win? No, this game James wants to win too much, from James's shooting heat map can be clearly seen, he went to the basket again and again, he too wanted to help the Lakers win a game, before that, the Lakers have suffered a wave of three consecutive losses. This wave of three consecutive losses is extremely demoralizing, and the Lakers are now in mourning and need a victory to wash away the team's low morale.
The Spurs are a good choice, after all, the Spurs are not a strong team this season, and both James and Westbrook have scored 30 points, but who would have thought that they suffered such a fiasco. Prior to this game, the Spurs had only a record of 12 wins and 18 losses.
The Spurs threw an extremely outrageous three-point shooting rate in this game, and the Spurs' three-point shooting rate reached a terrifying 46.2% in this game, and in this game, the Spurs threw a total of 18 three-pointers, while the Lakers only shot five three-pointers in the whole game. One of the players with the highest three-point shooting rate turned out to be Westbrook, and in this game, Westbrook's three-point shooting rate was 50%. In the modern basketball system, if a team does not have enough three-point output, then it is difficult for him to win this game, and the Worst situation for the Lakers today has emerged, that is, there is no stable pitcher on the team.
The Spurs had one player who did a great job in this game, and he was Diop, who scored 30 points from 11 percent of the field with just 26 minutes and 45 seconds on the field, seven rebounds, and most importantly, he hit all three-pointers in this game. Diop's outstanding performance also became the third player in NBA history to cut such a statistic, and the last to cut such a statistic was the Pacers' Sabonis. After the game, Diop was interviewed, and he made it clear that he felt good in this game, and when the Lakers played the five-small lineup, he was very good on the inside! The Lakers' defense is like an empty hole.
This wave of ridicule is also full of details! In this game, the Lakers actually put up a 5-team combination of Thomas Jr., Westbrook, Rondo, Tucker and Anthony at some point. Although Westbrook had turned the tide in the third quarter, helping the team chase the score to only single digits, the Lakers' poor defense was vulnerable to the Spurs' smooth offense. The Lakers now have to attack without offense, to defend without defense, and the worst problem is that their interior height is not enough. In this game, although Howard was put on the starting line-up, Howard only got 21 minutes of playing time in this game. In the bench transition stage, Fitzdale prefers to use Jordan Jr., but can Jordan Jr. play? In previous seasons, Jordan Jr. has proven that his body has no oil, but he is still deeply trusted by the Lakers' coaching team, and I don't know why!
This is a question that James does not understand.
After the outcome of the game had been determined early, James had already left the game before it was over, and he had a very dissatisfied expression on his face. To be honest, no team leader will ever see a team that suffers such a crushing defeat after scoring more than 30 points in several consecutive games! The key thing is that the entire team except James, Westbrook and Tucker have scored in double figures, and the performance of the rest of the players is really difficult to evaluate.
After the game, James was interviewed, and he said that there is no chemistry in any of our lineups, which means that James believes that the Lakers' various reinforcements this season are failures. This season's Lakers are ambitious, after attracting Westbrook, they formed a set of 360 combinations, but did not expect that now the Lakers have achieved such a bad record, in the West's strong opponents on the stage, the Lakers now want to compete for the championship, it is really very difficult. And the future of the Lakers has been overdrawn, once James chooses to leave the Lakers, then the Lakers will continue to have a long rebuilding period.