On January 20, 2022, the Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Indiana Pacers. After beating the Jazz, many Lakers fans breathed a sigh of relief. And today, facing the Pacers, who have lost four consecutive games, many people hope that the Lakers can continue to work hard and win this game. Unfortunately, it backfired, and the Lakers suddenly collapsed in the final quarter, eventually losing to the Pacers 104-111.
In this game, Westbrook, which has been criticized by fans recently, once again played badly, shooting 5-of-17 in the game, scoring 14 points, 2 boards and 3 assists, plus-minus -18. With 3:52 left in the game, Vogel directly replaced Westbrook. In the last game against the Jazz, Vogel also waited until the team reversed in the fourth quarter before daring to replace Westbrook. It can be seen that Vogel does not particularly trust Westbrook today.
After the game, a reporter asked Vogel why he replaced Westbrook so early. And I Vogel can say that I did not save face for Wei Shao this time, and directly said: "Let those players who I think can win the game play." The implication is that the current Westbrook is not a player who can help the team win. Vogel usually saves face for Westbrook in interviews, and this time he almost directly scolded.
But that's not to blame Vogel, who in the last six games has made a total of 86 shots and hit just 25 goals, shooting just 29.1 percent. In these six games, only 7-of-15 shooting against the Nuggets was a normal play. As a star with an annual salary of 40 million, it is understandable that two games in one game are aberrant, but this continuous play is bad, which head coach can tolerate it? To say that Westbrook fans do not like to listen, these six games of Westbrook's performance is not as good as the Lakers' bench players. As the head coach, Vogel himself knew that he needed to take care of Wei Shao's mood, so he never said too much. But now it has been reported that Vogel's position is not stable, there are many rumors, and seeing that Wei Shao is still playing so badly, Vogel probably can't help it.
Wei Shao said every time that he was adjusting, sacrificing and so on. But in 6 games, Westbrook's performance fans are in the eyes. The last time the dunk Gobert was very angry, but the dunk did not bring the team victory, like the last stanley final moment to do a good job of attack and defense, grasp every goal, is the way to win.