The NBA regular season continued, and the Lakers ushered in a second leg of six consecutive away games, heading to Miami to challenge James' old club, the Heat.
Before the game began, the broadcaster posted the entry screen of the Lakers' big three giants, and released the picture of the thick eyebrow brother conducting a 2-on-2 confrontation, but for insurance considerations, the Lakers still let the thick eyebrow brother miss this game, which is also the 17th consecutive game that the thick eyebrow has been absent.
The Heat were also understaffed, with lowry in the backcourt and Hiro, the sixth man on the bench, all missing the game.
Although the Heat lacked two core players, the Heat, who were sitting at home, gave the Lakers a slap at the beginning, quickly widening the point difference to nearly double digits.
On the other hand, the Lakers, it is still a slow and hot start, only James and Wei Shao's two core states are outstanding, but it is difficult to stop the Heat Wolves from firing wildly outside the three-point line, and at the end of the first quarter, the team has fallen behind by as many as 14 points.
Easy to fight again, the Heat team more and more courageous, a number of unknown Surprises face the Lakers James, Westbrook and Anthony these 75 stars, can be described as no fear, quickly expanded the point difference to more than 26 points, fortunately after James's return, the Lakers' state has picked up, the half-time point difference narrowed to 17 points.
Yi Bian fought again, James and Westbrook were in a burst of form, continuing the good state of the previous game against the Jazz.
Under the leadership of the two, the Lakers are playing better and better, the offensive and defensive status is constantly improving, and the point difference is constantly encroached upon by the team.
Helplessly, the Heat role players are too brave, whether it is the outside three points, or the hardness of the defensive end, let them bite the point difference to death, at the end of the third quarter, the Heat still hold a huge lead of 19 points.
Due to the huge point difference and the excellent form of the bench players, in the early fourth quarter, the Heat used an all-bench lineup and did not have the actual No. 5 position.
This gave the Lakers a chance, not only did the role players hit three-pointers in succession, but Westbrook and James also kept pushing back quickly, and the point difference was quickly forced to close to single digits.
Seeing the bad situation, the Heat returned to the main force, but still could not stop James and Westbrook, the Heat relied on the outside projection of role players to continue the firepower, which made the Lakers once force the point difference to only 4 points, helpless is Bradley and Horton Tucker successive mistakes, and finally the Lakers lost 107-113, missing the 26-point reversal.
Throughout the game, both teams exposed their respective problems and showed their respective strengths.
The Lakers were clearly not ready for a tough fight in the opening stages, and they did not expect the Heat to hand over the intensity of the playoff level as soon as they came up, which also made the team quickly fall behind 20 points.
But after the adjustment, James and Westbrook also used a combination of 57 points, 20 rebounds and 13 assists to play the game back.
Among them, Wei Shao's performance is the most gratifying, after the last outbreak, this game, Wei Shao continued to be efficient.
Played 32 minutes, 9 of 15 shots, bombed down a quasi-triple-double of 24 points, 9 rebounds, 9 assists and 3 turnovers, and the assist-to-turnover ratio was very well controlled, and there was a relatively low-level mistake in the whole game.
It is also with the counterattack pushed by Wei Shao that the Lakers got the opportunity to turn the tables in the last moment of the last quarter, but the role players performed poorly, even if James and Wei Shao created a large number of empty opportunities for them, they still did not seize it.
Among them, the starting Ariza, 0 of 5 three-pointers, Horton Tucker 5 shots 1 of the game, and made a sideline ball error in the last moment, directly burying the victory of the game.
In the previous round, Bradley knocked PJ Tucker over and was convicted of an offensive foul, leaving the Lakers, who were four points behind, to lose their valuable opportunity to chase points.
Obviously, after more than half a season of running-in, the Lakers' recent core rotation has begun to pick up, as long as they remain focused, both offensive and defensive are trustworthy, but the team's role players are not performing well, and the details are still far from the strong teams.
So, as the trade deadline draws closer, Pelinka should also move on sending away these underperforming role players and adding more players like Johnson who are willing to work hard to defend.
Especially Horton Tucker, a player, as one of the few high-quality chips in the Lakers' current roster with tens of millions of levels, it is time for Pelinka to send him away.