In the case of the team's extremely poor condition, the Lakers went to the away game to challenge the Rockets, and as a result, with the opportunity to kill, the Lakers let the opponent drag the game into overtime, and finally the aging Lakers completely collapsed in overtime.
Watching the Rockets' young players still alive in overtime, the Lakers veterans could only watch the victory slip away from their hands, and finally lost to the Rockets in the West at 130-139.
Throughout the game, James exploded with 23 points, 14 rebounds, 12 assists and 4 blocks, and the Lakers will do their best from the start to the bench, while coach Vogel seems powerless.
First of all, look at the Lakers who are doing their best, except for James in the starting, the other four players have delivered extremely efficient performances.
Among them, Wei Shao, who has been criticized this season, played the best game since joining the Lakers, played 39 minutes, shot 11 of 21, 3 of 3 three-pointers, 7 of 8 free throws, got 30 points, 8 rebounds and 6 assists, and only 1 mistake.
In addition, Munch played 40 minutes, shooting 8-of-13 from the field, 4-of-8 from three-point range, and scoring 20 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals, and also made only one turnover.
The other two starters are Rivers and Johnson, one who lost the draft at the beginning of the season with a two-way contract, and the other is a rotational fringe player with a base salary.
As a result, the two are one of the Best Players of the Lakers this season, and the reason is simple, both are young and energetic players who do not admit defeat at all, and will do their best as long as they appear.
Among them, Rivers played 33 minutes, shooting 4 of 7, with 17 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists, and Johnson had 5 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 3 steals on 2-of-3 shooting, with a plus-minus of +7 on the field as a team-high.
In addition to the four starters who tried their best, the performance of a number of role players was also remarkable, whether it was the old players or the new signings who gave their due performance.
Among them, Anthony shot 3 of 7 from three points, handed over 13 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block, although the defensive performance was not good, but Anthony, who played the No. 5 position, has done his best to fight and fight.
New signing Augustine performed perfectly, playing 22 minutes, 6 of 9 shooting (4 of 7 from three) with 16 points, 1 board, 1 assist and 1 steal, no mistakes, Gabriel played 2 minutes, got 1 point and 2 rebounds, the personal plus-minus was the second highest +4 on the team, and both rebounds were frontcourt rebounds.
With all the staff trying their best, James seems to have no desire to win, although he handed over 23 points, 14 rebounds, 12 assists and 4 blocks of gorgeous statistics, but still responsible for the loss of this game.
Because James is playing with an injury, it is true that his downturn can be understood to a certain extent, but the key moment has been killed under the basket, but he chose to pass the ball out, which is indeed puzzling.
And in the case of the Rockets' obvious lack of confrontation ability and limited internal defensive ability, they are still obsessed with outside projection, shooting only 1 of the three-point shot in the whole game, and the defensive end watches the opponent lay down, rather than handing over such a performance with injury, it is better to give more opportunities to those role players who are fighting hard.
In addition to James, coach Vogel must also be responsible for this defeat, and it can be seen that he is powerless against the current lineup.
As a coach who started with a defensive system, Vogel faced this offensive-oriented lineup, obviously unable to create a smooth attack, and it was even more difficult to find a head in terms of employment.
Now that James has suffered an injury, it's time to squeeze his playing time, especially since James is so underperforming and the other players are on the line.
A personnel movement in the game can also see Vogel's current mentality, and the new signing Gabriel has performed very well and energetically after coming on the scene, and the result is that it took only two minutes to quickly take vogel down without making a mistake.
Westbrook performed well, but Vogel still did not give him more of the ball to attack the inside line, or to James, who did not feel good, to shoot three points.
After the game, Vogel also publicly said that James felt obvious soreness, but he hoped that he would play in the next game against the Wizards, Vogel's current situation on the one hand is that he cannot control this lineup, on the other hand, he is also troubled by the Lakers management, on the verge of losing his job, naturally he will not do something radical, but it is possible to do the right thing, conservative and stable is a better choice.