Beijing time on February 28, in an NBA regular season game that ended today, the Lakers lost to the Pelicans 95-123 at home, suffering two consecutive losses, after losing this game, the Lakers have been getting farther and farther away from the top eight in the West, and now they even need to worry about whether the Pelicans, who have just completed a big deal and won two consecutive defeats, will come later and kick them out of the playoff position. What is even more desperate than losing is the sense of looseness and decadence that the Lakers team is now pervading.
This feeling is very obvious in lakers star LeBron James, who played 35 minutes in this game, shooting 13 of 23, including 1 of 4 three-pointers, 5 of 5 free throws, and 32 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. Just look at the data, James's performance is still outstanding, but everyone who watches the game knows that James actually played very badly in this game, not to mention the 7 mistakes in the whole game, his passivity at both ends of the attack and defense is visible to the naked eye. He, who had promised to lead the Lakers out of the quagmire, now looks ready to give up this season.
After the game, speaking about how to solve the team's poor performance, James said: "I don't have any answers to the team's performance today. "If what we're saying is later, then we'll all find out. You don't know what's going to happen in the next few weeks, but today, starting at the 6-point node in the second quarter, to the entire third quarter, I don't have an answer. The Pelicans have played well lately, they beat the Suns on the road and today are clearly a big win over us. ”
Obviously, James doesn't want to explain more things, and he doesn't want to use any rhetoric to motivate the team, and he, like this Lakers, is full of physical and mental exhaustion. Previously, many people believed that once the Lakers did not have any substantive action before the trade deadline, it might bring a devastating blow to the mentality of the whole team, and the Lakers were well aware that relying on the existing lineup, there was no hope of winning the championship this season.
The Lakers management is also aware of this, but they ultimately chose not to do anything, which is undoubtedly to tell the players that they are ready to give up this season, and if the players want to make a difference this season, the only hope is James, looking forward to James playing the same god-level performance as in 2018. But you know, James is now 37 years old, even if he can play like 2018 again, it will require him to overdraft more energy and health, in short, the Lakers simply want to squeeze james's remaining value.
Unfortunately, James did not compromise with the Lakers, in this game between James and the Lakers, James always maintained his sanity, if the Lakers management wants to mess up, then he will not choose to play for his life, will not be crazy for such a stupid management and crazy overdraft of his career, and finally ended up with the tragedy of Kobe Bryant. Perhaps the Lakers management itself did not expect that James would directly choose to give up the full sprint, his current behavior wants to express the meaning of the obvious, the game he will still play, but not too desperate, the data is still taken, the team wants to mess up the loss he will not stop.
If you think about it, does James have the ability to fight and win in these games? He actually still has it, but the consequence of doing so may be that he himself is injured, and eventually he is ruthlessly traded by the Lakers, in case of serious injury, it will be more than worth the loss. James will not allow the Lakers to mess around, let them squeeze out all their value, since the Lakers management chose not to act, then in exchange for the only thing to be messed up, this is not only James knows, the Lakers team is actually clear.