132-123, the Los Angeles Lakers finally found the field in the Houston Rockets, ending the previous five-game losing streak with a long-lost victory. More noteworthy for the Lakers than finding confidence in weak teams and winning the game itself is the bold attempt of acting coach David Fitzdale to put James in the starting fifth position and stand in the center position throughout the game.
In fact, this is also the first time for James, who has played in the league for 19 seasons, starting from the fame of St. Mary's High School in St. Vincent, and then joining the league as a champion and gradually growing into a superstar in NBA history, James, known for his all-rounder, has always been very unfamiliar with the fifth position. It's also easy to see Fitzdale's brave attempt as a tribute to him and James' replacement of injured Abdul-Jabbar and starting center Point Magic Johnson in the sixth game of the 1980 Finals.
Such a bold attempt yielded a very good result, and James contributed 32 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. In a post-game interview, James said: "Tonight I'm the starting center, I just want to try to do more in the game. I stopped on the defensive end to tell defenders and forwards how to defend, and we ended a five-game losing streak, which was nice. But James also stressed: "I've never played center, I've always played wing or ball carrier, after all, I was a skinny kid since I was a kid." ”
In recent games, the Lakers have increasingly begun to experiment with the "five-small lineup" without traditional centers on the court. Such attempts have already begun before Frank Vogel triggers the Safe health agreement, and in recent weeks we have increasingly seen James in the No. 5 position and Cameron Anthony on top of the No. 4 position. In fact, both Vogel and Fitzdale have tasted sweetness in this attempt, except for some defensive losses caused by unfamiliarity, high-level statistics and James's personal performance support the Lakers coaching team's determination to stick to this attempt. As a result, the idea of James as a starting center is also naturally put into practice.
After all, anthony Davis, the best solution in the fifth position, was determined to be absent for at least four weeks due to a strained medial collateral ligament in his left knee, which directly led to the Lakers, who had just begun to get on track, suffered a losing streak, and the winning percentage fell below 50%. Never in history has a team that has won the championship at least twenty games in the regular season and still has less than 50 percent winning percentage. This sounded a wake-up call for the Purple and Gold Legion, anyway, the start has been so bad, why not try the sword to go sideways?
To paraphrase Fitzdale: "I just made a bet", it's good to see that the acting manager made the right bet, thanks to years of accumulated experience, the veteran James did not adapt when he was a starting center, but played very exaggerated data. Another thing Fitzdale did was shorten the rotation of the team, and under the premise that multiple main rotations could not play because of health and safety protocols, Fitzdale insisted on a short rotation of eight players, putting Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan directly DNP. This move has been questioned a lot and requires a lot of courage.
As a result, everyone saw that the extreme field space allowed the Lakers to taste the sweetness: Westbrook got the ball and handed over a report card of 24 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, which is what the Lakers wanted to see when they tried to bring him back to Los Angeles in the offseason; the melon old man talked about juvenile madness, scored 24 points on 9 of 15 shots, plus or minus as high as +17, everyone noticed that James broke through the mark of 36,000 points, but did not notice that Anthony's total score was also quietly approaching the 28,000 point mark. Expected to catch up with O'Neal; another surprise was Malik Munch, who, following his comeback in the Christmas battle, continued his 1-meter-91 performance and scored 25 points, scoring 25 points, earning Fitzdale a compliment and even comparing him to super sixth-man Louvre.
James, meanwhile, has scored 30+ in a fifth straight game, and it's predictable that the success of this game will allow him to appear more and more in the fifth position in the future. James himself is not disgusted by this, the 17th All-Star said: "I think [being in the fifth position] put me in a very good offensive area." In fact, I can play any position in the game. For 19 years of my career, I've been successful on the offensive end. I can adapt well if the team needs to play in a big squad; similarly, if the team needs to play a small squad, I can succeed. ”
With James' support, then the Lakers coaching team can naturally roll up their sleeves with confidence. In the next game, the thirty-year-old man who is about to turn forty has to collide with the opponent's big man on the inside line, after all, this is what he must bear on the defensive end when he enjoys the dividends on the offensive end. Hopefully, when the veteran reappears in a picture like being locked by a young post-graduate like Clarkston, everyone can give him a little more tolerance.
Are you optimistic about the Lakers' ultimate five small? Do you have anything to say about James' fifth position? Will this be the Lakers' long-term solution?