After losing 130-139 to the Rockets on the road, the Lakers have suffered two consecutive losses, facing the bottom team in the West, the Lakers still failed to play even a little advantage, and finally dragged into overtime by the other side, and were defeated. It can be said that such a loss is to completely remove the lakers' last fig leaf, but also destroy the confidence of many Lakers fans and players, let people really realize how bad this Lakers are, after the game even Lakers star LeBron James finally admitted that there are problems in the lineup of this Lakers.
In this game, James played 45 minutes and had 23 points, 14 rebounds, 12 assists, 1 steal and 4 blocks on 9-of-26 shooting. Despite his poor performance on the offensive end and controversial passing in the final moments of the fourth quarter, James' defensive attitude in this game is worth affirming, and the 4 blocks prove his best efforts on the defensive end, but even so, the Lakers still can't stop the opponent's tidal attack, and the Lakers themselves are difficult to sustain at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends.
Speaking about the team's ups and downs, James said: "Yeah, of course it happens from time to time. We play some good basketball, and then we don't play good basketball. We play some good quarters, and then we can't play good ones. We didn't play well in the final moments of the game and played enough rounds in the final stages to win. So that's definitely going to have a partial impact, and it's definitely going to get into your head. ”
In James's view, the Lakers' biggest problem this season is that the fault tolerance rate is too low, which leads to them having to do almost every round in the game, every link is perfect to win, but their lineup is not enough to support them to do this, James admitted: "We just don't have a lot of room for error, when we make mistakes or the defensive end is wrong, or when we have bad opportunities under the basket, the opposing team really makes us pay every time." We haven't escaped punishment for making mistakes, it's that simple. This season we have very little room for fault and the opposing teams are making us pay. ”
To put it bluntly, the Lakers' lineup this season is a big problem, there are 10 guards in the whole team, most of whom are poorly defended, which leads to the Lakers often being hit by opponents on the defensive end, in order to fill the big hole on the defensive end, the players must play a higher efficiency on the offensive end, but throughout the season, the Lakers have no player who can really achieve sustained and efficient output, even James himself, will encounter difficulties in some nights, as for other players, it is often impossible to move.
Now, perhaps the Lakers will regret not listening to James to leave Caruso, after the NBA reporter Marc Stein reported that Lakers forward LeBron James is one of Alex Caruso's biggest fans in the Lakers, he once very much hoped that the Lakers would renew Caruso. However, due to the impact of the luxury tax, the Lakers refused to match the offer of the Bulls for a 4-year, 37 million contract for Caruso.
In fact, not only James, Lakers head coach Vogel also very much hope that Caruso stays in the team, this season Vogel has more than once emphasized the lack of defensive talent in the first two seasons, especially the addition of Westbrook, so that the Lakers' starting backcourt defensive level plummeted, Bradley Although the defense is good, but there is still some gap between Caruso and Carusobi who is gradually entering the peak, this season look at Caruso's performance in the Bulls, if the Lakers can put forward the combination of Westbrook + Caruso's backcourt start, Then maybe their fault tolerance rate will not be so bad this season.