On January 31, Beijing time, the Lakers ushered in the last stop of the 6 consecutive visits in the NBA regular season, challenging the Hawks away! The Lakers have been plagued by injuries recently, have suffered two consecutive defeats, and their record has slipped to 9th in the West, and they urgently need a victory to stop the decline and regain confidence. Contrary to the Lakers' form, the Hawks have recently been in hot form for six consecutive wins, launching a fierce attack on the playoffs. The collision between the two teams in different momentum was extremely fierce, and finally after four quarters of fighting, the Hawks reversed the Lakers 129-121, sending the opponent a three-game losing streak.
After the game, the Lakers and the 8th-place Timberwolves pulled off to a win. If the regular season ends as the 9th in the West, the Lakers will need to win two consecutive games in the playoffs to win a playoff spot, which is an additional consumption that the aging Lakers cannot afford.
This hypothesis is not unfounded, because the Lakers' next schedule league is the most difficult, and the Purple and Gold Legion has not yet run out of what they imagined. The starting lineup changed 25 sets (tied for the first place in the league with the Nets), always out of the way, the offense improved, the defensive problems will be exposed, the defense has improved, the offense has lost power, it is difficult to imagine that this is a team that is determined to compete for the championship.
Take today's game against the Hawks, the Lakers, whose offensive efficiency ranked only 24th in the league, shot 54% of the shots, 42.9% of the three-point shooting rate, and the Lakers' shooting rate in the first half was as high as 71.4% under the Hawks' poor defensive combing (the Hawks' defensive efficiency was 114.1%, the league's bottom 4).
Even so, the Lakers eventually lost the game. The reason is very simple, the Eagles' poor defense, gave the Lakers an illusion that they are a strong team, when the intensity of the final quarter of the game rises, the Lakers' offensive efficiency plummeted, and the outside shooting rate fell sharply! And more deadly than the offensive decline is that the Lakers have no defense at all, the penalty area door is wide open, let the Eagles buckle casually, and finally end up being reversed, the Eagles threw 58.3% of the shooting rate, and the penalty area scored as high as 62 points!
Speaking about the team's 3 consecutive defeats, Thick Brow said: "I believe we are still a good team, no matter what happens in the regular season, as long as we make the playoffs, we will be a good team." ”
Compared to the thick-browed authorities fans, James' former teammate Channing Frye's review is to the point! Fry said that the Lakers must figure out the role between the players, the rotation order, who should be in charge, what kind of ability Westbrook should play, the two 75 stars are on the field and lose, the Lakers should stop messing up the war. In addition, Fry also pointed out that old center players such as Howard can't keep up with NBA-level guards.
Therefore, Lakers fans should also be sober, Howard is not the same year, do not really think that Howard can save the Lakers' poor defense. In addition to the pride of today's Lakers, we don't see any signs from them saving the season in the second half!