NBA regular season, the Lakers visit Denver to challenge the Nuggets, the two teams are not in a strong state recently, the Lakers lost to the Grizzlies, the Kings, the team suffered 2 consecutive losses, and the Nuggets lost to the Clippers, defeated the Blazers, the Lakers Davis is absent, the Nuggets Murray is absent, but the Lakers are relatively westbrook, James, and the Nuggets only have a star left in Jokic, even so, the Nuggets defeated the Lakers by 37 points under the leadership of Jokic, the Lakers suffered a three-point losing streak, 37 points is the Lakers' biggest loss point difference this season, The worst one before was 28 points, after the game James left the game in anger, determined not to do any interview, Wei Shao was even more dissatisfied with the magician's remarks, and fought back after the game.
From the perspective of the whole game, the Lakers lost very thoroughly, on the first quarter can still be stalemated with the Nuggets, to the second quarter the score was pulled to more than 10 points, the third quarter was pulled to nearly 30 points, to the end of the Lakers fell behind a maximum of 42 points, although James in the last quarter fell behind 30 points still want to lead the team to narrow the point difference, but the Nuggets team performed strongly, the point difference is getting bigger and bigger. Even if the whole game wester 0 mistakes, it is still unable to stop the Nuggets' offensive footsteps. The Lakers are currently 21-22, the winning rate is again less than 50%, in the offseason they are crazy to strengthen, recruit Howard, Westbrook, Ariza, Anthony, Bazemore, Jordan Jr. and other experienced veterans, they currently have only one - the championship, so why are the Lakers who are aiming to win the championship suffer a 37-point defeat? To get to the bottom of the matter, let's analyze the truth of the Lakers' fiasco of 37 points.
1. The Lakers' defense
From the beginning of the season to the halfway point of the season, the team discussed the most is the Lakers' defense problems, why the Lakers can win the championship in 20 years, the reason is that they have a strong defense inside and outside, the inside line has Davis, Howard, McGee, Morris, they can jump and carry, in the face of all opponents they are completely unable to help the team withstand the last line of defense, the outside line James is a pawn, plus Rondo, Danny Green, Pope, Caruso, they are up and down, forming the most terrifying inner and outer defense of the league, Finally won the championship, and this season's Lakers defense is not heartless, although the past 2 years, but now James is not the core of the defense of the pawn, 24 seconds of violation, the offense was robbed, James will not easily go after the opponent.
Against the Nuggets, James has many hands-crossed defense, and defense is not active, as the absolute core of the team, James does not defend will completely bring bad effects, the team is no longer the same heart, once relied on the defense to survive Ariza, Bazemore, Howard, Bradley, now more give up relaxation, began to "walk" on the field, no cohesion, get by, how to form a good defensive system? The Lakers were first in the league in defensive efficiency last season, while this season their defensive efficiency was 109.4, ranking 17th. The assist efficiency is 58.8%, and the offensive efficiency is 108.6, which are all at the bottom of the league.
Among them, James' defensive efficiency has declined the most, This season 122.2, ranked 288th in the NBA league, the net efficiency is only 0.6, ranked 165th in the league, offensive efficiency 112.8, ranked at 55th, averaging 28.9 points per game, ranking second in the league, it can be said that now James is all offensive, completely undefended, but considering that James is 37 years old, playing time reached 36.7, the league is third, many fans misunderstand James's strength, in fact, compared to once he fell too seriously, which is also an important factor why the Lakers have good James data this season but can not always win the game. He is no longer the James who once attacked and defended.
2, the Nuggets' offense is really brilliant enough
Against the Blazers bombed 140 points, it can also be seen that without Murray's Nuggets, the same offense is excellent and smooth, against the Lakers they scored 133 points, of which the core player Jokic only scored 19 points, the whole team scored 7 people in double figures, 11 people rotated all had points, Campazzo, Najib, although they did not score in double figures, but they scored 9 points and 8 points respectively, the whole team shot 47 of 91, 40 three-point shots hit 23 times, rookie youngster Hylander shot a 6-level three-pointer, and the whole team had 9 people shoot three-pointers In the first half, the Nuggets three-point shots 16 shots 11, the shooting rate is as high as 60%, while the Lakers, three-point 30 shots hit 10 times, whether it is the first half or the second half, the Nuggets have maintained a super high shooting rate, such a shooting rate, the league few teams can resist.
And the Nuggets' super high shooting rate comes from their good sharing of the ball, the whole team sent 35 assists, Jokic sent 13 assists on the inside, each of them believed in their teammates very much, with a strong offense to break the Lakers' only remaining defense, sharing the ball perfectly, the team's offense will be more fluent, which is another layer of reasons that led the Lakers to lose 37 points.
3. The Lakers' offensive tactics are unclear
Compared to the Nuggets' excellent offense, the Lakers seem out of place, Vogel made an analysis of this game after the game, he said: We trained for the Nuggets before the game, and made a lot of preparations in the attack, but in the end, it was really sad to be defeated, the defensive end, every time we packed Jokic, we will be destroyed by the opponent's good pass, the reason is that we did not strictly follow the pre-game plan and arrangement. We only shot 2 of our 18 shots in athletics, and we need to make better shooting choices in the future, and we need to improve in overcoming adversity.
From Vogel's words, you can feel that the Lakers did enough "homework" before the game against the Nuggets, but the results were not satisfactory, in fact, watching the whole game, you will clearly feel that the Lakers offense is not smooth, Wei Shao, James are fighting for each other, and they have not played the cooperation that should be played at all, before the assists on the doubles of Wei Shao, this game only has only 3 assists, with the second highest number of shots in the whole team, Wei Shao has been changing, the whole field is still 0 mistakes, the reason is that he does not pass the ball, more is to take the ball to attack, There is no consideration of whether there are empty teammates on the outside or "pie" players on the inside, which also leads to a decline in Westbrook's mistakes, and the Lakers have lost more, Munch, Bradley, Reeves. Ellington, these outside shooters, combined to shoot seven three-pointers. James is the same thing, with 2 assists, 23 shots, and more to solve the fight himself.
There is no team cooperation, only star singles, in the face of the overall and offensive opponents, the Lakers rely on piecemeal play to close the game, completely into wishful thinking. Vogel needs to make its own changes, if you want to play a small lineup, let go of the hand to play, let Wei Shao rush up, let James become the tactical axis, if you want to play positional warfare, give the traditional center more playing time, less Wei Shao, James's personal singles, one is the main attack, one is the main defense, in the choice between the offensive and defensive ends, I don't know how Vogel will make choices and trade-offs.