【Highlights】Lakers 96-133 Nuggets About the teacher three-double Nuggets 23 three-pointers beat the Lakers
Frank Vogel's "Jen Center" experiment allowed the Lakers to achieve a wave of "five-game winning streak," but it turned out to be a "false boom."
In the days without Anthony Davis, they simply couldn't compete with the real playoff-level strong teams.
Because of a gambling deal in the offseason, the Lakers this season stumbled all the way and performed disappointingly. On December 18, he played the Timberwolves on the road, and Anthony Davis injured the medial collateral ligament in his left knee, which made the Lakers even worse and faced a huge crisis.
After the thick eyebrow injury, the Lakers immediately suffered a wave of five consecutive losses, after losing to the Nets in the year-end battle, their 16-18 record, only ranked 17th among the 30 teams in the league, which is an unacceptable performance for a team with the championship as the only goal.
The Lakers coaching staff made a bold decision in the Game against the Rockets on December 29, allowing LeBron James to serve as the starting center - although James has also made a cameo appearance in this position in previous games, but playing as a starting center is the first time in his 19-year career.
From a record point of view, Vogel's experiment seems to have worked significantly, because the Lakers have a 5-1 record in the next six games, and the only game they lost was because they reused Dwight Howard's regular lineup in the fifth position. That is to say, in the first five games of James' tenure as a starting center, the Lakers won all!
This round of 5 wins and 1 loss, the Lakers' record increased to 21 wins and 19 losses, rising to the 6th place in the West and 13th in the league, with a great rebound. At the same time, LeBron James, who is already 37 years old, has also maintained amazingly good form, giving Lakers fans an important reason to maintain confidence in the future.
According to statistics, since the thick eyebrow injury, James has scored more than 30 points in 11 of the next 12 games, averaging 34.2 points, 9.3 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks, shooting 54.7% from the field and 37.5% from three-point range. Before today's game, James' season average of 29.1 points per game was his best personal performance since leaving the Cavaliers for the first time in 2010!
The Lakers lost 119-127 at home to the Grizzlies on Jan. 10, played the Kings three days later, and they lost 116-125 on the road. In these two games, James scored a total of 69 points, but Wei Shao was 2 of 12 in one game and 2 in 14 in one game, once again becoming the object of criticism by the media and fans, and it seems that as long as Wei Shao is slightly "normal", the Lakers can still continue the pace of winning streaks.
But a big defeat completely exposed the true color of the "eyebrowless" Lakers. Facing Jokic's Nuggets today, the Lakers were pulled apart in the second quarter, and finally lost 96-133 by 37 points, breaking the record for the largest loss in the history of the two sides.
The Lakers' fiasco, on the surface, has a certain contingent factor - the Nuggets shot 11 of the team's three-pointers in the first half, of which rookie Hyland scored 16 points on 6-of-8 (including three of 5 out of 4), and it was with a crazy projection after his substitute appearance that upset the balance of the game.
After the game, Hyland set two career records with 27 points and 10 rebounds, and veteran Jeff Green scored 26 points on 10-of-14 shooting, which was also the best performance of the season. Obviously, this is all extraordinary play.
But the Lakers' loss to the Nuggets is also an inevitable result. Today they played back and forth with the other side in the opening stages, but an important reason was that the Nuggets were not really nervous at that time, the defense was quite lax, and the Lakers' first 8 goals all occurred in the box.
From the second quarter onwards, when the Nuggets began to increase their defensive intensity and the outside shooters also shot out, the game immediately showed a one-sided situation. Although at the end of the half, the difference in points on the court was only 13 points, but the nuggets who were blooming everywhere had fully grasped the initiative of the game, giving the impression that the Lakers simply did not have the ability to turn the tide in the rest of the time.
Because the game went into garbage time early, James only played 30 minutes and 42 seconds in the end, got 25 points, 9 rebounds and 2 assists, and also sent 2 blocks, which was not bad. Westbrook scored 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting, seemingly sweeping away the previous downturn.
But the truth is that James has begun to show fatigue after a series of high-intensity outputs. Today, he singled the opponent's unknown youngster Davin Reid several times in the opponent's position, and there was also a leak on the defensive end, showing a clear sense of helplessness and powerlessness.
But who can blame him? Because of the Lakers' struggles, James averaged 36.9 minutes per game this season, second only to VanVleet and Durant, ranking third in the league, and also set a Lakers career record.
It is worth vigilance that Durant left the court early in the game against the Pelicans earlier today due to a knee injury, and the severity of the injury needs to be further examined. Although James's health has remained good so far, considering his injury experience in the past few years, the Lakers must not take it lightly.
The Lakers originally introduced Westbrook to ease the pressure on James, and now it seems that not only has this purpose not been achieved, but he has also become a burden on the entire team, making it difficult for them to extricate themselves.
I don't want to meet again, because it is true that as Wei Shao said, he has also made great sacrifices in this team. The problem is that the compatibility between Wei Shao and this lineup is really poor, and at the age of 33, his technical ability and playing habits have long been fixed, whether he insists on the inherent style of play or reluctantly makes changes, he cannot become the perfect partner around James.
In today's game, Wei Shao's feel is better than the previous two games, but the actual role on the field is not substantially different. It can only be said that he successfully avoided the fate of carrying the pot again.
Saying that Wei Shao is a burden for the Lakers, the more important point is that because of his joining, the Lakers locked up all the salary space, resulting in the follow-up can only rely on the basic salary contract to fill the lineup. Now the whole team has five non-base salary players, two can't play (thick eyebrows and Nunn), and two performance struggles (Westbrook and Tucker), all counting on the 37-year-old Zhan, the Lakers are not to lose.
The Lakers did play a wave of 6-5 wins, but if you look closely at your opponents, you'll see that this is just a benefit of the schedule. Because all they beat are the Rockets, Blazers, Timberwolves, Kings, Hawks, or the lottery teams that are either rotting and rebuilding, or injured and in poor condition.
The lakers' last defeat of the current top eight teams in the East and West was a overtime win over the Lone Rangers on December 16. Coincidentally, it happened to be the last full game that thick eyebrows had been played before the injury.
And from the early departure of the Timberwolves on December 18, even with that wave of 6-5 wins, the Lakers' overall record is only 5 wins and 9 losses, ranking 25th in the league in the same period, only better than the Clippers, Eagles, Magic, Rockets and Pacers, not as good as the Thunder, Pistons and Kings.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the Lakers lost to the Nuggets today, because without thick eyebrows, their strength is like this, relying on old Zhan to bully the weak brigade is OK, and it is really impossible to meet the "strong team".
Although Munch's recent hot feel has created a lot of surprises, Stanley Johnson's defensive performance has been praised by the coaching staff, and Howard's debut today was also eye-catching, but the basic salary is the basic salary after all, you can't expect a player with an annual salary of one or two million to provide tens of millions of dollars worth every day.
Wei Shao's "high salary and low energy" is already a fact that cannot be changed, and the current Lakers can only hope to return from thick eyebrow injuries and rescue them from water and fire. The good news is that Thick Brow has now resumed personal training and is expected to make a comeback before the end of the month.
Until then, the Lakers must remain patient enough and be fully mentally prepared for the outcome. Because in the next two weeks, they will have to face the jazz, heat, nets, 76ers and other teams in turn...