The NBA regular season game ushered in a battle of focus, and the Los Angeles Lakers, who were struggling to linger in the playoff qualifiers, came to challenge the Toronto Raptors on the road. In the previous meeting between the two sides, the Raptors easily attacked the Lakers' home court with a destructive momentum, but in this game, the Lakers who came to the away game were obviously prepared, and with the excellent performance of James and Wei Shao, they fought with the Raptors in regular time to draw 116. After entering overtime, Bradley became a Lakers wizard, scoring five consecutive points in the game's decisive moment to help the team win a crucial victory 128-123. It is worth mentioning that before the start of this game, the Lakers had suffered 11 consecutive losing streaks on the road.
In recent times, the Los Angeles Lakers, which evolved from lake three collapses to lake collapses, are almost difficult to win, and they are often completely beaten by opponents in the first quarter of the game. Defensive nature is the lakers' immediate urgent need, especially after Vogel put up a suicide five small lineup, their explosion on the inside seems to have become an embarrassing "main theme". On the offensive end, the Lakers' pitcher base was extremely unstable, but in terms of organizing the offense, the team lacked a major offensive launch point after James' break. Such a Lakers team can be described by the word "dilapidated", not even exaggerated.
In some previous games, Westbrook's share of the ball has further declined, even after James is off the court, Westbrook is often not the first choice for team organization, in Vogel's concept, Tucker jr. with a contract of tens of millions is even more suitable to become the organizer of this team than Westbrook. In last year's offseason, Lakers general manager Pelinka in order to be able to keep The Little Tucker, but also painfully let go of the defensive gate Caruso in the backcourt, so many Lakers fans and friends have expected the Little Tucker to play his own value this season and prove that he deserves this tens of millions of dollars. However, the greater the expectations, the greater the disappointment, although in the long season, Tucker Jr. has played a few good games, but most of the time, Tucker Jr. will only disappoint the Fans of the Purple and Gold Army.
As a strong arm-length backcourt player, Tucker Jr.'s body proportions are almost like a star, and his arm span of only 196 centimeters has reached 213 centimeters at one point. On the offensive end, Tucker Jr.'s projection stability is not strong, the three-point shooting rate is only 27%, and in terms of organizing the offense, Tucker Jr. is often forced to stop the ball near the opponent's free throw line, thus forcing the Lakers to be extremely fluent on the offensive end. However, in Vogel's concept, Tucker Jr. is still an important role in the team's rotation lineup, his game value is even higher than Wei Shao, just as the so-called "ideal is very full, reality is very bone", Tucker has "proved" himself countless times, he is not a role that can be entrusted by the head coach.
Due to injury, Tucker Jr. failed to play in this game, but in the absence of Tucker Jr., Wei Shao, who had been very weak before, obviously gained more possession, and in this situation, Wei Shao played his most efficient game since the end of All-Star Weekend, invested 4 three-pointers, cut the long-lost triple-double data, and helped the team shoot a thousand gold-worth of three-pointers in the decisive moment of regular time. It turns out that without Tucker Jr., the Lakers will be more fluent on the offensive end, just as the so-called "winning is not terrible, who is embarrassed to lack", perhaps, the young man who was once infinitely optimistic about Vogel and Pelinka is the Biggest cancer of the Lakers in the rotation lineup? His average performance throughout the season is really hard to match his ten million contract.