Before the game against the Jazz, the Lakers were in a very bad situation, and they had suffered three consecutive losses after the defeat to the Nuggets in the last game. More crucially, after the fiasco of the last game, many people in the outside world believe that they have lost their fighting spirit. So this game is very important for them, but at the same time their opponent is the Jazz team that just beat the Nuggets in the top three in the West, and this game will be a bad game for the Lakers.
But in this game, the Lakers seem to be determined to win to avoid four consecutive losses, showing a very strong defensive attitude and fiery shooting feel in the first quarter of the game, and playing with the opponent is difficult to solve. In the second quarter, the Lakers played a small climax with the excellent performances of Tucker and Munch, and at one point led their opponents by as many digits as many as double digits, and also held a six-point lead at the end of the half. By the first half of the third quarter, the situation on the field was still very anxious, the two sides came and went, and the point gap was constantly narrowed.
In the second half of the third quarter, the Jazz suddenly burst into action and hit a 12-2 counter-attack climax, leading by 10 points at the end of the third quarter. Seeing that the Lakers were about to face a four-game losing streak, Johnson, who signed on a short-term contract, suddenly became the savior of the team, almost single-handedly leading the team to a 13-0 attack wave in the opening stage of the fourth quarter, and had already led the team to a 4-point rebound in the middle of the fourth quarter. In the following time, the Lakers played more and more smoothly, and the anxious Jazz team frequently played iron. In the end, the Lakers defeated the strong enemy 101:95 at home and avoided a four-game losing streak.
Looking at this game, the reason why the Lakers can sweep away the decline and win the game is inseparable from the following points. First of all, the performance of the lakers' two giants James and Westbrook is very good, which is an important reason for the team's final victory. The former played 37 minutes in the game, and had 7 rebounds and 7 assists on 8 of 20 three-pointers and 3 of 20 shooting. In the first half, James scored 10 points and 5 assists, and in the final quarter, he constantly attacked the opponent's interior line, helping the team to play a 13-0 small climax to surpass the score, and finally won the game, fulfilling the promise to the fans.
The latter played 28 minutes in this campaign, 15 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists on 4 of 14 three-pointers, although the scoring and offensive efficiency are not particularly high, and the plus-minus is only -11, but Wei Shao's contribution to the team is not just measured by data. In this game, Wei Shao injected a strong firepower into the team, frequently hitting the mid-range shot of the outside line in the first quarter of the game to help the team tighten the score. In addition to shooting in, the biggest feature of Westbrook's campaign is that he has repeatedly attacked the Jazz's best defensive player, the league's top defensive interior gobert.
With about 2 minutes left in the second quarter of the game, Wei Shao broke through the two-man defense to force the inside line after James's blocking, and had no fear when facing the complementary Gobert, directly facing the latter to complete the earth-shattering interstitial dunk, and also caused a foul, after this dunk, the morale of the Lakers players and fans was completely ignited. In the last 41 seconds of the fourth quarter, the Lakers were only five points ahead of their opponents. At this time, it was Wei Shao who stood up, and he once again played 2+1 in the face of many people's pursuit defense in the fast attack, which completely laid the victory of the Lakers in this battle.
Secondly, the Lakers' role players in this game also provided great help to the team, with Munch as stable as ever, scoring 14 points and 7 rebounds on 6-of-12 shooting, and veteran Bradley hitting a key three-pointer each in the opening and closing stages of the game. However, the most eye-catching is johnson's performance, in the final quarter of the game Johnson suddenly broke out, in two minutes of sudden shooting to score 10 points in a row, to help the team play a 13:0 small climax in one fell swoop to surpass the score, if it is not Johnson's magical performance, the Lakers are likely to lose the game.
Finally, the Lakers' biggest change in this game is actually in terms of attitude. From the beginning of the first quarter, the Lakers showed the momentum of having to win the game, encouraging each other on the offensive end and defending with all their might on the defensive end. And when the Jazz completed the rebound in the third quarter and extended the lead to double digits, into the fourth quarter of the game, the Lakers no longer looked as unmotivable as in the previous game, instead they have been stubbornly fighting against the opponent and finally completing the reversal to win the game.
The victory of this game is undoubtedly significant for the Lakers, on the one hand, after winning this game, they finally ended a three-game losing streak, which can be relieved for the time being, after all, if they lose again in this game, then they are likely to fall out of the top eight in the West. And they won this game is the third in the West, just defeated the Jazz team that once gave the Lakers a crushing defeat in the last game. Opponents in this campaign have made their victories very rich, because so far the Lakers have rarely been able to beat the top four teams in the division.
On the other hand, in this game, the Lakers swept away the decline and showed a strong fighting spirit. After the fiasco in the last game, the Lakers have been questioned by the team's famous magician, who believes that the team has not made enough efforts to win the game. Team boss James also apologized to the fans before the start of the campaign, saying they would do better. In this campaign, the Lakers really fulfilled their promises and showed an attitude that made fans happy, which is a great help to change the team's current downturn.
The Lakers' performance in this campaign proves that as long as they are willing to work hard, they can still achieve good results. For example, the Lakers' defense has been criticized this season, but in this game, through their iron-blooded defense, they limited the shooting rate of the Jazz team, which currently ranks first in the league in offensive efficiency, to 37%, and the three-point shooting rate is only 26%, and the offensive efficiency is far below the average of the season, which means that the Lakers' defense in this campaign is very good, which is closely related to their morale.
Of course, a win in one game doesn't mean the Lakers can perform as well as this game in the rest of the season. What they need to do now is to maintain the momentum of the team in this game, after all, their record is still not ideal at the moment, they need to win more games.