The Lakers' victory is certainly something to celebrate, but the result of the game is very thrilling, indicating that they have not changed, and the strength has not improved. Today, the Lakers narrowly defeated the Raptors through overtime, ending a three-game losing streak, at present, the Lakers are in the ninth place in the West, and the ranking is unlikely to rise, because the gap with the previous team is very large, but this victory is also very hemostatic, retaining the opportunity to participate in the playoffs.
It's only the regular season, but the Lakers need to go all out every game, every game has to be played as a playoff, and victory is their only goal.
The Lakers' opponent is the Raptors, whose wins are only fifty percent, ranking seventh in the East, and it's also a team that works hard for playoff qualification, and victory is equally important for both teams. In this game, the Raptors sent out the starting players were Siakam, VanVleet, Trent, Barnes and Birch, and only one starter from Anunoby was missing, and the lineup was still neat. The Lakers sent starting players were James, Westbrook, Munch, Howard and Gabriel, and Davis, Anthony and Tucker were all out. James is as stable as ever, but the team's performance has not improved, indicating that the Lakers still need another player to come forward, Westbrook is the player who shoulders this heavy responsibility, he finally ushered in the outbreak, hit the equalizer at a critical moment, dragged the game into overtime, and finally Westbrook scored more than twenty points, got a triple-double statistic, and the Lakers also won the game.
Now the Lakers are in a desperate situation, the ranking can not go up, but it is possible to fall, they can not afford to lose, this game, James and Westbrook played more than forty minutes, the veteran tried their best, the victory is not easy to come by.
James played 44.2 minutes and had 36 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists on 15-of-26 shooting; Westbrook played 41.1 minutes and had 22 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists on 8-of-18 shooting.
In the last five games, Westbrook scored more than twenty points for the first time, only two triple-doubles since February, and this season's triple-doubles statistics are not much, his form and stats have fallen to a low point, but fortunately, this outbreak is critical, and the Lakers need Westbrook to have a good performance.
After the game, Westbrook was interviewed by the media, and the reporter asked him why so many bad shots did not affect his self-confidence, and Westbrook said that he had scored twenty-three thousand points, which was the reason why he was able to hit the key shot. As a superstar, Westbrook has never doubted his ability, self-confidence and strength complement each other, and only by believing that he can do it will have the best performance. Vogel encouraged his players, saying Westbrook had experienced too much criticism this season and that he was happy with this crucial performance that he could finally release his repressed emotions.
Another important reason for the Lakers' poor performance is that there are too many injuries to the players, and Westbrook has only missed one game this season, ranking twenty-fifth in the league in average playing time per game, and he is doing his best to help the team, and we may blame him a little too much. The Lakers are a team with multiple superstars, and the roster depth is better than most teams, so as long as they make the playoffs, everything is possible, and winning the championship is not an impossible task.