On January 29, Beijing time, the NBA regular season Lakers challenged the Hornets away! For the Lakers, whose record has fallen to the ninth place in the West and the winning rate is less than 50%, it is urgent to have a victory to stop the decline, the bad news is that james is absent from this game due to a left knee injury, a thick eyebrow due to a right wrist injury, and the big three are only one less person left, and the strength is sharply reduced. In the end, after four quarters of fighting, the Lakers lost the Hornets 114-117 and suffered two consecutive losses.
Because James and Thick Brow were absent from the starting fifth position, Vogel was forced to change sides and re-take Jordan Jr. to the starting lineup, and the other four starters were Westbrook, Bradley, Ellington and Stanley Johnson. This starting lineup is too old and lacks vitality, and the space is bad, Westbrook, Jordan Jr., Stanley Johnson do not have a three-point projection threat, simply put, they can't attack or defend!
In stark contrast to the Aging Lakers, the Hornets' starting lineup is full of youth, and they blew up the youth storm at home, playing a fantastic 16-3 start and pulling the score apart early.
At the end of the first quarter, the Lakers trailed by 10 points, the starting five combined 12 shots only 1, Jordan Jr. once again proved that he did not have the level to enter the rotation, the first quarter of 4 free throws 0, there is no basket in the eyes, the basket is unguarded, but also passed the ball to Ellington outside the three-point line.
The starting team dug a hole to fill in, and in the second quarter of the game lineup, the bench lineup with Bazemore, Anthony and Rivers as arrows began to help fill the pit, and at one point chased the point difference to 2 points. However, as soon as the starting lineup returned, the point difference was once again quickly pulled open! At the end of the first half, the Lakers were 16 points behind, and the starting 5 people were all negative, of which Wei Shao's plus-minus -27 was shocking, the substitute players were all positive and negative, and Bazmore's plus-minus value +9 was the highest in the team.
It is clear that there is a big problem with Vogel's lineup, and in the second half Vogel adjusted the starting lineup, abandoning Stanley Johnson, who did nothing on the offensive end, and put Anthony on the starting line, playing a role in opening up space. The Lakers began a crazy journey of chasing points, and Wei Shao did a self-release, which obviously enhanced the offensive aggression. At the end of the third quarter, the Lakers were only 4 points behind the Hornets, and the victory or defeat was unpredictable.
The Lakers, who found a sense of play in the final quarter, once equalized, but Ismail Smith became the Hornets' cavalryman, almost without a shot, scoring consecutive points to help the Lakers widen the point difference to 10 points again. At the crucial moment, Wei Shao scored 10 consecutive points to chase the point difference to 1 round, Ball key 2 free throws 1, the Lakers have the opportunity to kill. The Lakers can play a complete tactic with 9 seconds of offensive time, and can choose 2 points of insurance or a three-point kill.
Vogel's tactic was to give the ball to Westbrook, because he played the game back and it was up to him to decide the final choice. In the end, Westbrook chose to dry three points at the left 45 degrees, he had previously hit a three-pointer here, but the final killer ball bounced out of the basket, and the suspense of the game came to an abrupt end.
In the whole game, Wei Shao scored 35 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists on 12-of-23 shooting, only 1 turnover, and slashed 30 points in the second half, bringing the Lakers out of the abyss of a maximum of 20 points.
Westbrook responded strongly to outside questions in this game, proving that he could still play an All-Star performance with his single core team, as he said after the game, "When the team needs me, I can still do it, unfortunately we didn't win the game today." ”
Now what the Lakers need to figure out is how to make the three giants of Westbrook, James, and Thick Eyebrow still play an efficient game when they are on the floor at the same time.