On the basketball court, the ability to score key moments often becomes an important indicator of a player's superstardom. Some American media have counted the key moment scoring rankings so far this season, and the key moments here refer to the situation where there are 5 minutes left in the game and the difference between the two sides is within 5 points.
In this list, Embiid is at the top of the list with 96 points, DeRozan is second with 67 points, Durant is in third place with 67 points, Tatum and Lavin are tied for fourth with 59 points, Westbrook and Alexander are tied for fifth with 56 points, and there are three people tied for sixth, James, Morant and Russell, all of which are 53 points.
Embiid's top spot is not surprising, as the absolute core of the 76ers, with absolute ball possession and usage, the more anxious the moment, the more the ball will be handed over to him, and his advantage on the inside is very obvious.
DeRozan is the king of the fourth quarter of the season, ranking first in the league in total points in the fourth quarter, and recently becoming the first person in history to complete a whistle-to-whistle kill back-to-back. And his teammate LaVine is also a master of playing key balls.
With Harden still not finding a scoring feel in the first two months, Durant is the Nets' only choice for tackling key moments, and it is reasonable to be in third place.
The only thing that makes people feel a little surprised is that Westbrook actually scores more points than James, so is this proof that Westbrook should not carry those pots for the Lakers?
In fact, Westbrook's key ball ability should never be doubted, and his strong psychological qualities support his ability to score points at key moments. Wei Shao's biggest problem is stability, because the basic skills are not solid and personality reasons, his play at non-critical moments is too unstable, if he can be stable at non-critical moments, perhaps the Lakers do not need to go through so many key moments.
James is synonymous with stability, but in today's Lakers, the stronger the ability, the greater the responsibility, not only the regular time requires him to go all out, but the key moments still have to be handled by him.
As for curry and other superstars who are not on the list, it is not that their scoring ability at key moments is not strong enough, it is likely that they have experienced fewer "key moments".