At present, the Lakers are experiencing a wave of devils in the East road trip, although in the last game they beat the Magic of the East 116-105, but earlier in the face of the Eastern Heat, the Lakers are still "original", once trailing the opponent by as many as 26 points, although in the second half they fought hard, but unfortunately finally swallowed the defeat 107-113. In this campaign, the Lakers have a total of two players who scored 20+, except for James, who scored 33 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists, and the other who scored 20+, is the long-lost Wei Shao.
Westbrook started 31 minutes and finished with 24 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists on 9-of-15 shooting, and the plus-minus of -1 was the second most efficient player in the starting Five (behind Bradley at +11). Especially in the final quarter of the Lakers crazy chase stage, Wei Shao in this quarter 4 shots 3 in this quarter 9 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists, if it is not the little Tucker's fatal mistake in the last moment, Wei Shao really has the opportunity to play the Savior of the Lakers in this game, to help the Purple and Gold Army stage a good comeback. It is worth mentioning that this is also Wei Shao's score again after 21 days, the score broke through 20+, the last time he got 20+, but also back to January 3, Beijing time Lakers against the Timberwolves, when Wei Shao shot 7 of 16, 20 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists.
But this time Wei Shao won 20+ again, and also let his assists come to 9 times, which is indeed good news for the Lakers, because in the previous few games, Wei Shao was difficult to get a good hand between offensive aggression and organizational tandem, and on January 8, he gave 13 assists, but only 9 points, and back to the previous game where he got 20 points and the Timberwolves, the number of assists was only 5 decent. As a senior triple-double who has won 2 or 30+ in the past few seasons, it has now become a luxury for Wei Shao to grasp both scoring and organization.
And this time in the face of the defensive efficiency ranked seventh in the league of the heat, Wei Shao finally abandoned the previous state of playing iron, not only in the offensive end of the improvement can also regain their influence on the organizational end, at least in the next respectively to meet the Nets, 76ers these two strong teams, but also let the Lakers have a little more chance of winning, not surprisingly, thick eyebrows should usher in a comeback in one of these two games, the three giants reunited, if Wei Shao can find the state, it is not worth the Purple Gold Army to wait for him for so long. As a heavy signing for the Lakers in the offseason, Westbrook has indeed played unsatisfactorily this season, averaging only 18.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 7.8 assists per game, including a score that has set a record for the worst since the 10-11 season, and the number of assists is far below the career average of 8.5, the lowest since the 13-14 season.
Although the Lakers are also exploring the relevant deals about Westbrook recently, to be honest, he now has more than 40 million salary baggage, few teams are willing to be the wronged boss, if you want to clean him up, the Lakers must send a draft pick, but after James retired, the Lakers are very much in need of using these draft picks to regroup, so it is not realistic to let them easily hand over the "future".
So at present, the Lakers can only rely on the thick eyebrows as a life-saving straw, if his comeback can make Wei Shao re-integrate into the team, it is naturally the best, but if unfortunately still can not find the chemical reaction, the Lakers' championship plan this season can really be stranded!