On March 8, Beijing time, in an NBA regular season game that ended today, the Lakers lost to the Spurs 110-117 on the road, missing two consecutive wins. Because Lakers star LeBron James was absent due to injury, Lakers coach Vogel chose to change the lineup and sent Westbrook, Munch, Reeves, Tucker, Howard's starting lineup, the most notable of which is that Howard, who did not play in the last game for 1 minute, was directly promoted to the start.
When seeing the Lakers put forward this starting list before the game, many fans also lamented that Vogel finally opened his mind, and finally re-used Howard, but when the game was over, the fans' hearts fell to the bottom again, more chilling than a regrettable defeat, in fact, Vogel's use of Howard's attitude, as the team's starting center, in the absence of Davis and James, in the case of a serious shortage of people in the team's interior line, Howard only got 17 minutes to play.
In the whole game, Howard played 17 minutes, 5 shots 4 to get 9 points, 6 rebounds and 1 assist, the performance is actually very good, but in the key fourth quarter, Howard was directly abandoned, is his physical strength not good? Obviously not, because Howard only played 5 minutes in the third quarter, and his physical strength can fully support the fourth quarter. Is it Howard's performance that doesn't work? Looking at the state of his first three quarters, it is actually very good.
No one knows why Lakers coach Vogel will be so reluctant to use Howard this season, but one thing is for sure, without Howard's protective frame, the Lakers' lineup is too short, and the pressure on opponents on the defensive end is seriously insufficient. In this game, Spurs center Jacob Pelter ushered in the outbreak, playing 25 minutes, shooting 6 of 10 from the field, with 18 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists.
It should be noted that Peltel scored 11 points and 4 rebounds in the fourth quarter on 4 shots, completely breaking the Lakers' interior line, and at this time, if the Lakers have Howard on the court, it is definitely possible to limit Peltel, but Vogel is not willing to give Howard 1 minute of playing time, which also allows Poller to directly mock the Lakers lineup after the game, he said: "The Lakers' lineup is relatively short, so we are making full use of this." ”
Asked in an interview after the game if he missed LeBron James the most at the end of the game, Vogel said: "Of course he helped us the most in the fourth quarter, but we missed him throughout the game. We have a lot of players who can play well, just can't win... We hope he'll be back in the game against the Rockets after a day or two of rest. ”
Vogel's words have been ridiculed by many fans, the reason is that at this stage, he wants to rely on only James, obviously there is an inside line like Howard to protect the frame, but it seems that Vogel just wants James to come back to play center, to know that James is 37 years old, Vogel still seems to want to squeeze him dry at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends. This is completely unreasonable and unhealthy way of playing.
Some people say that the Lakers' current game loss is really faceless, and even Westbrook said after the game that he and his family have received death threats, but in fact, the biggest problem of the Lakers now may be from Vogel, his stubbornness, and the improper use of Howard, resulting in the team's defense this season repeatedly collapsed, take today's game, Howard played well, what did he do in the last quarter?