The NBA regular season continued, the Lakers at home to meet the Challenge of the Raptors, this game the Lakers started too badly, they were played by the Raptors a wave of 21-2 offense, the team started behind by 19 points. Subsequently, the Lakers were not able to adjust their form, they only scored 12 points in a single quarter, the whole team shot 3 of 25, 13 of 0 three-pointers, creating the worst performance in team history. In the first quarter, the Lakers also trailed the Raptors by 21 points at 12-33. Because of the poor performance in the first quarter, the Lakers also lost their competitiveness in the game, although they performed very well in the last three quarters, but because they fell behind too much in the first quarter, they were unable to catch up with the score, and finally the Lakers lost to the Raptors 103-114 at home, suffering two consecutive losses, while the Raptors won four consecutive games.
Before this game, Vogel had stressed in an interview that the Raptors are a team that is very good at playing defensive counterattacks, so that players can pay attention to the defense and reduce mistakes. Then after the game began, the Lakers players were completely unable to limit the Raptors' counterattack, the team's defense speed was not timely, and it was useless on the defensive end, and at the offensive end, the Lakers' performance was also very crotchy, only 12 points in a single quarter, only 3 hit 3 in 25 shots, 13 shots were 0 of 13 from three-pointers, and the team was already 21 points behind the Raptors in a single quarter.
Playing such a sluggish performance in the first quarter, the Lakers also had a hard time winning the game, and the team trailed by up to 28 points in the game. Although the team played a wave of high-quality offense in the last quarter, the effect was not good, the Raptors always occupied the initiative of the game, and finally the Lakers lost the game at home again.
In the past period of time, the Lakers have won fewer and lost more, and the performance has been very bad. The team has won two games recently, and this is still when James gets 50+, and the team finally wins. In games where James scored under 50 points, the Lakers lost the game. Now this Lakers team, if James does not get 50+ points, the team will have a hard time winning the game.
James performed well in this campaign, he got 30 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists, he became the best player in the team, but helpless, the team performed badly in the first quarter, James got 30 +9 data and still could not lead the team to win the game. Westbrook had 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists on 4-of-10 shooting, Tucker contributed 18 points, and Reeves didn't do well, scoring just three points on 1-of-7 shooting.
It can be said that at this stage, the overall competitiveness of this Lakers team is very weak, whether it is playing a strong team or a weak team, they are difficult to win, the team lacks motivation, plays very lazy, and the concentration is not enough, and the state of entering the game is also slow. Unless James continues to erupt in the game and gets high scores, the Lakers have any hope of winning. After losing this game, the Lakers have basically no hope of hitting the top 6 in the West, for them, if the team wants to enter the playoffs, they need to keep their current rankings, strive not to fall out of the top 10 in the West, and then try to win in the playoffs, so that the Lakers can be expected to enter the playoffs this season.