On February 26, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, the Lakers lost to the Clippers 102-105 in the Los Angeles derby, James was not in good shape, only 21 points, 11 rebounds and 3 assists in 6 of 18 shooting, and also made 6 mistakes. And in the final moment of the final quarter of the game, at the critical moment when the Lakers were 1 point behind, he chose to pass the ball to Anthony, who overtook the three points and missed, resulting in the Lakers can only foul tactically and finally drink hate.
After the game, James's choice caused a lot of controversy among fans, and many people believed that James should not pass the ball, but should choose to attack himself. There are also people who think that James is no problem passing the ball to Anthony while he is caught in the bag. So should James pass the ball, and who should blame the Lakers for this failure? We might as well take a complete look.
At that time, there were 18.3 seconds left before the end of the fourth quarter, and the Lakers also shouted out their last timeout. After the timeout, Vogel sent a five-squad, with James, Westbrook, Horton Tucker, Anthony and Reeves on the floor. Westbrook sent the sideline ball to James, who did not attack in the first place, but chose to press the time, which was the first point of controversy.
Many people feel that James should not press the time, the reason is that the Lakers are behind by 1 point at the time, and considering that they have not stopped, James should indeed accelerate the attack, so that once the attack fails, the Lakers have a chance to grab 3 points after the tactical foul. There is some truth to this statement, but in fact, James chooses to press the time, and it cannot be wrong, after all, if the Lakers score, the opponent will also lose the opportunity to counterattack. It can only be said that each has its own reason, but the problem is that since the choice of time-pressing play, then the Lakers' lineup, there are some problems, this will be carefully discussed later.
Then came the second point of controversy, james was wrapped up and chose to pass the ball. In fact, this choice is not a problem, even Jordan, there are times when passing assist teammates to kill. Some people may say, will it be passed on sooner? But what's the point of passing the ball before it gets caught up in the bag? If you have to say that there is a problem with the pass, it is better to say that the quality of James's pass is very general, which makes Anthony a little uncomfortable.
It can be seen that James's passing choice is not a big problem, his overall efficiency of this game is not good, including the defensive attitude in the last quarter. But if you have to use this key ball to black him, there is no need. The main reason why the Lakers did not succeed in this attack is probably because of Vogel's employment and tactical design.
After the game Vogel spoke about Anthony's shot, believing anthony should pass the ball to Horton Tucker, who had a chance in the bottom corner at the time. But the problem is that Horton Tucker's three-point shooting rate is only 28.5%, and even if he is let go, it is really difficult to say which of the higher success rates is that he shoots empty three-pointers and Anthony tops. Vogel should actually reflect more on why he let Westbrook and Horton Tucker play in this attack.
Since James was allowed to play a key attack with the ball, Westbrook and Horton Tucker should not have played at all. Because neither of them projected (Wei Shao rushed directly into the basket after sending the sideline ball), and as a defender, it was difficult to grab an offensive rebound under the basket to complete the second offense. The more suitable candidates would be Howard (who had seven frontcourt rebounds) and Munch (even though he shot 0-of-4 from three-point range in this campaign). Imagine if Munch had been met in the bottom corner by Munch instead of Horton Tucker, who was not good at shooting, would Anthony have chosen to shoot directly?
And if you want to go to Westbrook, then this attack is better to let Westbrook grab one with the ball. After all, he broke through, James was on the outside, he could catch the ball and shoot, but the reverse was not at all. And Vogel on a set of 5 small lineups that can't open the space, people can't understand it at all, James didn't play well in this game, but if you only look at this key offense, Vogel is the most responsible person for the Lakers.