All-Star Weekend is just around the corner, and fans familiar with the NBA should know that after All-Star Weekend, NBA teams will also enter the sprint period. For the Lakers, who did not trade reinforcements at the trade deadline, can they grasp this sprint period and raise their results up? Su Qun, a well-known basketball commentator, analyzed this on his personal social media.
Su Qun believes that if the Lakers want to play well in their second half of the game, they must do 3 o'clock to have hope.
The first is to first set a specific goal. Although the current Lakers have little prospect of fighting for the championship, the general direction of the team is definitely still fighting for the championship, but now the Lakers directly target the championship, obviously a little ambitious, they also need to complete a "small goal" first, such as striving to enter the top 6 in the West and avoid participating in the playoffs.
The current No. 6 team in the West is the Nuggets, who are six wins ahead of the Lakers, and with 25 regular season games to go, it's not easy for the Lakers to catch up with their opponents. However, even if it can't reach the top 6, the Lakers need to strive to reach the top 8, after all, even if it enters the playoffs, it is a relatively dominant side. At present, the 7th Timberwolves in the West are 4 wins ahead of the Lakers, and the 8th Clippers in the West are 2 wins ahead of the Lakers, if the Lakers can adjust their state, even if they can't catch up with the Timberwolves, but chasing the Clippers, there should be some hope. Setting a reasonable goal is also conducive to improving the cohesion within the Lakers, at least so that everyone knows where to go.
Second, if the Lakers want to complete their goals, they also need to solve the problem of imbalance between attack and defense. The Lakers in the past 2 seasons have been mainly defensive, but after they formed the Big Three this season, they tried to solve the problem by attack. As a result, Westbrook failed to integrate on the offensive end, and the defensive end plummeted with the departure of Kuzma, Caruso, Pope and others.
However, at present, with the return of the thick eyebrow brother, coupled with the Lakers' Bradley, Stanley Johnson and others, the Lakers are not completely without defensive resources. Vogel should regain the tone of defense, and only by getting the defense back can the Lakers' record be expected to pick up.
Third, if you want to improve your defense, the Lakers should fix a set of starting lineups with strong defensive ability. The Lakers have used 28 starting lineups this season, of which 13 sets of starters have only been used once, which is of course caused by many reasons, but the season has been more than halfway through, the Lakers must also fix their starting and rotation.
James, Thick Brow, Westbrook, Bradley and Stanley Johnson should be the best starting lineup for the Lakers, while Munch can switch to the 6th man. Of course, in fact, the best plan is to let Wei Shao play as a substitute and Munch play the starter, but unfortunately such an idea is difficult to achieve, so it can only be taken second.
For the Lakers, if they can all be healthy and focused, then maybe they have a glimmer of light this season. But if after the All-Star, the Lakers are still as muddy as the first half of this season, or suffer from the injury of core players again, then their end can be imagined.