Playing strong teams lose frequently tragically, and playing weak teams wins all by old Zhan.
This is the real situation that the Lakers are facing now.
On March 14, Beijing time, the heat of the last LeBron James slashing 50 points to lead the team to defeat the Wizards has not dissipated, and the Lakers lost 111-140 to the league leader Suns on James' 10,000-assist milestone night.
In the second quarter of 10 minutes and 58 seconds, James assisted Cameron Anthony's three-point shot, which was james' 10,000 assists in his career, and he became the first player in history to get 30,000 points + 10,000 rebounds + 10,000 assists.
But how amazing James's milestone is, how bad the Lakers' performance is. Throughout the game, the Lakers had no chance to win, and soon after the opening, they fell behind to double digits, and the first 12 minutes of defense were broken and lost 48 points and lost 26 points, and the game lost suspense early.
No need to struggle with what "Vogel why not use Dwight Howard", in the face of the balanced sun, the Lakers whether they play a small lineup or a large lineup have no resistance, big or small is just a lineup style problem, the Lakers' fundamental problem is that the defense is too poor, the strength is insufficient, not in the lineup style problem.
After the All-Star Game, the Lakers won 2 games. Playing the Warriors, who were in a slump at the time, the Lakers relied on James to slash 56 points to win. The Wizards, who are ranked 11th in the East and lack Bradley Beal, have survived james' 50 points per game.
In both games, the Lakers are fighting with the opponent to attack, relying on James to play against the sky to win, this way of playing means that the fault tolerance rate is extremely low, when James can not get out of the anti-sky state, the Lakers fight the attack can not fight, and there is no defense to fight, can only accept the end of the fiasco.
Every win for the Lakers is incredibly difficult, and James must be counted on to play the unmatched mode to win thrillingly. But every time the Lakers lose, they seem to be very "relaxed", losing to the Pelicans, Clippers, and Suns, the Lakers are big scores and fiasco. Playing the Spurs and Rockets, a weak team struggling in the lottery area, the Lakers are collapsing at the last moment and losing points very high. In front of the Lakers, whose defense line can be called a tofu slag project, any team can play the league's top level of offense.
It is not difficult to hear from the words of the Lakers general that the Lakers have accepted the reality, and the Lakers are now a team in the play-off zone, and the final ranking can only be 9th or 10th. The Lakers are 4.5 wins away from the Clippers, and the hope of catching up with the Clippers is extremely slim, and the Lakers' task for the rest of the season is to keep a playoff ticket and try to win a playoff ticket through the playoffs, which means they need to win two consecutive games in the playoffs to enter the playoffs as the eighth in the West.
Regardless of whether the Lakers can beat the two teams of the Pelicans, Clippers and Timberwolves in the playoffs, the Lakers now dare not even say that they will get the playoff tickets.
The Lakers are currently 1.5 wins ahead of the 10th-place Pelicans in the West and 2.5 wins ahead of the 11th-place Trail Blazers in the West, and the advantage is not obvious. The good news for the Lakers is that both the Pelicans and trail Blazers are missing a few main players due to injuries, the Pelicans are missing Brandon Ingram (injured), McCollum (isolated), the Blazers lillard, Nurkic can not play, and even the recent fierce Anfinni Simmons will be absent for at least 1-2 weeks due to a knee injury. With a lack of main scorers, the Pelicans and Trail Blazers slowed down to catch up with the Lakers.
At first glance, the Lakers have little hope of chasing the team in front, but the pressure brought to them by the team behind them is not enough, and the Lakers should be able to sit on the fishing platform and wait quietly for the arrival of the playoff that will determine their fate. A glance at the remaining schedule of super difficulty shows that the Lakers are still far from sitting on the fishing platform.
At present, the Lakers have replaced the Bucks as the most difficult team in the remaining schedule, and their remaining opponents have an average winning rate of nearly 57%. In the last 15 games, the Lakers have to play with the Suns, Warriors, Jazz, 76ers, and Lone Rangers once each, and the Lakers have to play with the Nuggets twice. In addition to the six teams that have basically locked up straight-through playoff tickets, the Lakers also have to play against the Cavaliers, Raptors (2 times), Timberwolves, Pelicans (2 times) and other teams that may play playoffs. Of those four teams, the Timberwolves and Pelicans have both beaten the Lakers this season.
If the Lakers still can't play a strong team in the next game, and the team with average strength depends on the old Zhan Kai, then by the end of March, the Lakers may fall out of the top 10 in the West, and the Pelicans and Blazers may lie down to occupy the 9th and 10th positions in the West.
The only good news for the Lakers is that Anthony Davis is recovering well from injury and is expected to catch up with the final stages of the regular season.
In his first media interview since an ankle injury in mid-February, Davis revealed: "I'm feeling good, the swelling has subsided a lot, we're on the right track, I can now take off my protective boots and wear my shoes normally, and today I've been given permission to do some light shooting training." ”
Davis also revealed that although he could not do aerobic training such as running during his recovery, he did some intermittent training to maintain cardiopulmonary function, and he believed that he would soon return to the court and fight for the Lakers to save play-off tickets.
According to the previous Davis injury recovery schedule released by the Lakers and the inference of authoritative famous doctors, Davis is expected to return in 1-2 weeks. In the most optimistic scenario, Davis can return around March 21, which means Davis can play up to the remaining 10-11 games. If Davis returns after 2 weeks, he may have to wait until late March or even early April to return, meaning he can play up to 6-8 games remaining.
So, the next nine games (seven of them on the road) are crucial to the Lakers' fate this season. If the Lakers can maintain a winning percentage of 50% or more in these 9 games, then the final closing stage of the game against the Nuggets (2 games), the Suns, Warriors, Pelicans, the Lakers who welcome back Davis have a chance to win and lock up play-off tickets. But if the Lakers lose too much in the next 9 games, then even if Davis returns at the end of the season, he may not have enough time to save the Lakers.
Overall, the Situation of the Lakers is not optimistic, and there is news that some Lakers players only want to quickly finish the remaining less than a month. But Davis still hasn't lost faith in the Lakers, he's still grumpy about being eliminated by the Suns in the first round of last year's playoffs, he believes that the Suns escaped a disaster and advanced to the next round in large part because he couldn't go all out with a groin strain, and he is eager to challenge the Suns again in the first round this year and complete revenge.
Less than a month into the final month of the regular season, James has done everything he can, and Davis is the Lakers' only remaining hope. But no one knows, wait until Davis comes back, there is not enough time for him to help the Lakers turn over.