On January 16, Beijing time, since the injury of the thick eyebrow brother, the Lakers have declined the overall strength of the team due to the lack of internal core, although James has scored 30+ points in a row at this stage in hopes of leading the team to recover the decline, but at present, the Lakers are still losing more than winning and winning less when facing strong teams. Previously, the Lakers have experienced two consecutive losses, and now they are coming to the highlands to play against the Nuggets. Originally thought that the Lakers, who ranked seventh in the West, would not be too ugly even if they lost, they did not expect that the Lakers actually lost 37 points directly.
The Lakers' performance in this game can be described as a disaster, the whole game only got a total of 96 points, while the opposite Nuggets scored a high score of 133 points in the face of the Lakers' paper paste defense, which is a high score in the Nuggets' entire season of games. Even though the Lakers had adopted a different starting lineup under Vogel's arrangement before the game, it didn't seem to help the team. Howard was the starting center, and Munch's starting line-up with Bradley and Westbrook and James was not enough to watch.
James scored a team-high 25 points on 9-of-23 shooting in this game, and Westbrook also improved to a certain extent, scoring 19 points with nearly half of the 7-of-15 shooting, while Howard, who had just been promoted to the starting center position, scored 13 points. It all seemed like the Lakers were winning, but the Nuggets on the opposite side had seven players scored in double figures, and although Jokic only scored 17 points, he got 12 rebounds and 13 assists at the same time, which also led to the Nuggets and two other players scoring 26+ points.
The Lakers have not led any of the four quarters of the game, the Nuggets are like a skilled teacher with the rhythm of the game, the Lakers have no ability to resist at all, even James was defended by the opponent's young general to 24 seconds of violation, James is also rarely angry. In the face of the current situation of the Lakers, many fans may not understand why it is so bad, and Vogel also listens to the opinions of the fans to let Howard start, but all this seems to have not changed, and the Lakers still can't lift their energy.
In fact, the Lakers' biggest problem at present is definitely not in the offensive aspect, just Howard has scored 10 points in the first quarter of this game, but why is his playing time still only 21 minutes? It's not that Vogel isn't going to let Howard out, it's that Howard can't defend against Jokic. And the Lakers' defensive ability on the outside is also very poor, Westbrook and Munch almost no defensive ability, Bradley is not to say more, so Vogel has been putting Ariza in the starting lineup.
The absence of the thick eyebrow brother directly led to the collapse of the Lakers' entire defensive system, and none of the other players would defend, so the Nuggets could score 30 points in the fourth quarter. And the Lakers can't face the opponent hard, because Wei Shao's offensive ability is also very poor, and only James is the only one in the whole team who can guarantee his own score. Offense is not good, defense is even worse, how can such a Lakers team win the game? The current Lakers can rank seventh in the West only because of James's ability, and it can be said that this Lakers have almost no hope of winning the championship.
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