On January 3, Beijing time, the NBA regular season, the Lakers hosted the Timberwolves. Previously, the Lakers faced the Timberwolves twice this season, and both were crushed by their opponents in the third quarter and suffered a fiasco. Today, the two meet again, and the Lakers are bound to want the new hatred and old hatred to be settled. In the end, the two sides fought for 48 minutes, and the Lakers narrowly defeated the Timberwolves 108-103, completing their revenge and winning two consecutive victories.
Although the Lakers successfully took revenge, it was difficult to see a smile on the player's face. First of all, the Timberwolves' roster is more crippled than the Lakers, and the stars Towns and Russell are unable to play in this game due to the triggering of the health and safety agreement. The Lakers still play very hard against such Timberwolves, and the players' faces are full of tired words.
Secondly, in the first half of the game, there was a dispute between the team's assistant coach Handy and the defender Bradley, both of whom looked more solemn. Tucker quickly pulled Bradley away, and James went over to Find Handy to resolve the conflict. Such an episode made the atmosphere of the whole team become more tense.
Then there was the play of the team's main defender, Wei Shao. Although Wei Shao has 20 points and 5 assists in this game, he still has 9 turnovers, which is really very hot. He contributed seven turnovers in the first half, and although he improved in the second half, he also made a low-level mistake of 5 seconds of serve at a crucial moment, which really made the fans look very hard. If it were not for the overall weakness of the Timberwolves, the Lakers would have suffered three kills from their opponents.
James had 26 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals in this game, and he is still the biggest contributor to the Lakers' victory. In order for the Lakers to win, he played more than 39 minutes in this game and played the entire fourth quarter. At the age of 37, James still needs to fight for the team, which makes people feel that he is really working too the team. In four of his last five games, he's played more than 38 minutes, the only one that was easier was when the team beat the Blazers, where he played less than 30 minutes.
James gradually showed fatigue in this game, and his personal performance of 30+ points in 7 consecutive games came to an end, after all, he was really tired. On days when he was sorely injured, he carried the team completely on his shoulders. The more poignant scene occurred in the fourth quarter of the game, when James stopped the Timberwolves after a break, and the camera was focused on James, only to see him bending down and holding his knees and gasping for breath, when his body had actually reached a limit. But he still insisted on leading the team to win the game afterwards, and James really broke his heart for this Lakers team.
James averaged 37 minutes per game this season, ranking third in the league, behind VanVleet (37.7 minutes) and Durant (37.1 minutes), setting a new high in the past five seasons. He also averaged 28.5 points per game, second in the league and a new high in nearly 10 years. It can be seen that James is really not easy.
(Text/Yuwen Basketball)