On January 18, Beijing time, the Lakers defeated the Jazz 101-95 at home, and LeBron James played 37 minutes in this campaign, shooting 9 of 20, 8 of 3 of 3 three points, and cut down 25 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal and 1 block. Russell Westbrook played 28 minutes, 5-of-14 and 1-of-4 from three-point range, with 15 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists.
Although Westbrook's data performance in this campaign was not eye-catching, and he did not get a chance to appear in the first 8 minutes of the fourth quarter, he had two highlight moments in this campaign, he sent the top ten-level dunk of the year in the second quarter, the frontal death barrier Dundy Gobert played 2+1, and also made a basket in the last 40 seconds of the final quarter to kill the game 2+1. Apparently, Westbrook's four-seater lock sparked a heated discussion after the game, and both teammates and coaches responded to it.
Lakers coach Frank Vogel was interviewed after the game, and when he talked about Westbrook's lock, he said that he had to play smart or tough against Gobert, and Westbrook played a hellish round. James said after the game that he was impressed by Westbrook's performance of constantly pounding the basket, and that the dunk was exciting and completely superstar performance. "I watched the replay many times and it was a phenomenal performance." James said.
Interestingly, Wei Shao also received a technical foul after staging this extremely powerful partition, and he was very excited after the partition, and his mouth spewed garbage to vent his emotions. As the "victim" of the dunk, Gobert's post-match response reflected the pattern, he praised it as a great dunk, when he couldn't jump (cover) because Westbrook's arm was right on his shoulder, but the referee wouldn't blow it. "I don't think he (Wei Shao) is talking to me about anything, he's a guy who likes to talk to himself." Gobert said.
Wei Shao himself was also asked about this barrier after the game, and he smiled and said that he just did what he had to do, which was familiar to him( performance), and everyone had not seen these. In addition, Wei Shao also admitted that this goal gave the team extra motivation and boosted the morale of the team, which is what they need and are currently lacking, knowing that the Jazz are a good team. Talking about the feeling of staging a barrier against the best defender of the year, Wei Shao also revealed that this time the barrier was not aimed at Gobert himself. "Tonight it just happened that Gobert was in that position, and playing against other teams may be someone else," Westbrook said with a smile.
Then again, the Lakers won this campaign, to know that they have suffered 3 consecutive losses, conceded an average of 128.3 points per game, the opponent's shooting rate is as high as 54%, they only let the Jazz get 95 points in this campaign, to know that the Jazz's offensive efficiency before this campaign was 116.5 ranked first in the league, and the Jazz only shot 36.9% in this campaign. After the game, Coach Vo said bluntly that doing a good job of defensive rotation is the key to their victory in this battle, and if they can play like this game, they can beat any opponent.