On January 13, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, the Lakers challenged the Kings away, this is the fourth time the two sides have met this season, after the previous three encounters, the Lakers won 2 wins and 1 loss, just a week ago, they also won 122-114 at home. However, in this game, they are not so lucky as the last game, in the first half of the score is very tight, the second half of the sudden change, the King in the third quarter to play a 40-23 attack frenzy, in one fell swoop to pull the point difference to double digits, although the Lakers struggled to catch up, but could not force the point difference, and finally could only swallow the losing streak at 116-125.
Before this wave of 2 consecutive losses, the Lakers once won four consecutive games, just when everyone thought they were out of the quagmire, the Grizzlies in the last game were like a blow to the head, and they were helpless on both ends of the offensive and defensive ends. They thought that the game would be able to boost morale with a victory against the 12th-place Kings of the West, but who would have thought it would have been a two-game losing streak.
Veteran James continued his recent hot competitive form, scoring 34 points on 13-of-29 shooting and scoring 7 rebounds and 6 assists, which is the 11th time in his last 12 games that he has scored at least 30 points in a single game, and he is still constantly breaking his record. Some people may nitpick that he doesn't shoot well in this game, but you have to be clear about the fact that he is already a 37-year-old veteran.
Compared to James' nearly 45 percent overall shooting percentage, the Lakers' starting backcourt combination of Westbrook and Bradley looks even more disastrous. The former played nearly 40 minutes, with 8 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists, but only hit 2 goals in 14 shots, and did not hit a single shot in 5 shots outside the three-point line, while the latter only had 6 points and 4 assists in 27 minutes, only 2 of 9 shooting, and 4 shots of 0 from outside the three-point line. In fact, as long as they project accurately, the Lakers will not be as passive as this.
It should be noted that Munch, who earns just $1.79 million a year, plays more like an All-Star than Westbrook's salary of more than $40 million, and he shot 7-of-13 from the field and 6-of-9 from outside the three-point line to cut 22 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. Even many Lakers fans can't help but joke that Wei Shao should at least give munch half of his salary.
After suffering this wave of losing streaks, the Lakers' record this season has also slipped to 21 wins and 21 losses, the winning rate will be 50%, and they were once considered the biggest favorite to win the championship at the beginning of the season, but now even the playoff qualification is in jeopardy. There is no doubt that reinforcements before the trade deadline arrives, according to Hoopshype reporter Michael Scotto, the Lakers are interested in Raptors guard Gary Trent, who has played in 33 games this season, averaged 34 minutes per game, and can get 16.4 points, 2.8 boards and 2.1 assists, shooting 42.1% from the field and 36.8% from three-point range.
Trent has excellent projection ability and playing with vitality, but the specific suitability of this Lakers team needs to be marked with a question mark. Taking a step back, even if it is a perfect fit for the Lakers, what chips they have to give to impress the Raptors, who only reached a three-year contract with Trent last summer for a total of $51.84 million, and even sent Powell away for him.