Despite the comebacks of Anthony Davis and LeBron James, there is still a significant gap between the overall strength of the Los Angeles Lakers and the top teams, which can be reflected again in the home game against the Bucks. Russell Westbrook went undercover again, scoring only 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting, and as the team's point guard, he only delivered 5 assists but 4 turnovers, which is really hard to say.
Of course, this defeat, if the blame is all on Russell Westbrook's head, it is obviously a bit unreasonable. In fact, the reason why the Lakers suffered a complete defeat this time has a very big relationship with the tragic explosion of the internal line. Although the status and role of the traditional center in modern basketball are not as good as before, it is not possible to have no certainty at all, and the Houston Rockets in the first two years have suffered such a pain. But the Lakers seem to not believe in evil, so the Bucks rely on the height advantage to frequently impact the basket, so that the Lakers have no way.
As the core of the Bucks, the "alphabet brother" Giannis Antetokounmpo gave a request, he shot 17 of 20, crazy 44 points, 14 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 steals, it was simply unstoppable. Although Giannis Antetokounmpo is an MVP-level superstar, it is difficult to limit him in itself, but such a burst of performance and efficiency is relatively rare, which shows how weak the Lakers' basketball defense is.
If Giannis Antetokounmpo is unstoppable, it is not so surprising, so that Bucks center Bobby Portis also shot 23 points and 7 rebounds with 50% shooting, and the Lakers side is really disgraceful. For most of his career, Portis was substituted for the team, but this season's Bucks' original starting center Brook Lopez was absent due to injury after the opening battle, and the team had no other suitable options to let Bobby Portis start first, but the effect was really good, and the game against the Lakers also became one of Bobby Portis's representatives.
In fact, the Bucks not only perform well on the inside, but also get some points from the outside through breakthroughs or back-up offense. Juddy Holliday made 12 shots, nine of which were within the three-point line, cutting a quasi-triple-double of 15 points, 7 rebounds and 10 assists; Grayson Allen shot 5 of 9, only 2 shots were outside the three-point line, and the whole game received 12 points and 4 assists; other outside players were the same, as long as they saw the opportunity, they desperately attacked the Lakers' basket. To put it bluntly, they are all professional players, and it is naturally easy to find the opponent's shortcomings and fate.
Originally, the Lakers have fewer insiders, in addition to Anthony Davis, there are only two blue-collar centers left, Jordan Jr. and Dwight Howard, and according to the Lakers coaching staff, under normal circumstances, the team will only send one of the big centers in the game. Of the two players, Jordan Jr.'s form decline was severe, which was quite obvious during the Nets' tenure, so in order to clean up Jordan Jr. in the offseason, the Nets did not hesitate to take multiple second-round draft picks and send him to the Pistons. But the rebuilding team does not need Jordan Jr., so soon the Pistons cut him, although the Lakers claimed Jordan Jr., and let him start at the beginning of the season, but Jordan Jr.'s performance is really difficult to say, he can only average 4.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per game, playing against the Knicks, Jordan Jr. only played 3 minutes, contributed 2 rebounds, and this has become a routine operation.
Compared with Jordan Jr., Howard's state is obviously better, but from the conventional data, Howard can only average 5.2 points and 5.4 rebounds per game this season, but he has become a surprise player on the court many times, and the overall efficiency is still very high. However, due to the tension in the back, Howard has missed two consecutive games, which is nothing less for the Lakers, who are already lacking in the interior line.
It is true that the Lakers still have "thick eyebrow brother" Anthony Davis, and objectively speaking, his performance in this game has been quite good. Anthony Davis played 37 minutes, scoring 22 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks, and was very present at both ends of the attack and defense, and there was hardly anything wrong with it. Since his return from injury, Anthony Davis has fully supported the Lakers' interior line, but relying on him alone is obviously far from enough. Not to mention that as long as Anthony Davis rests, the Lakers' basket is useless, simply let people kill. We can find that the rumors about the Lakers have never been broken, it seems that they all want it, but as far as the little assets that the Lakers have now, it is impossible to get many valuable powerful warriors. The members of the management, led by general manager Robert Pelinka, it is better to be pragmatic and bring in role players who are not very famous, but are quite useful, especially reliable interior centers, which may be the top priority.