The Lakers and Philadelphia highlights, James did not play, may consider the lakers paper strength gap, to avoid a strong confrontation and rest. This is a good strategy, after all, the Lakers' plan is long-term, the game is only one, the impact is not large. James can't maintain a 30-point scoring advantage, and if he can't play 30 points, he will pull down the average score. Embiid scored 30 points this time, and the average score per game had little impact, so James was still the front-runner, and the Lakers' plan to recuperate James got the expected results.
The Lakers also did not win the game, the last dozen seconds in a row of three points missed the opportunity, in fact they are still behind by 4 points, grabbing three points is an inevitable process, no hit is also a normal thing. But the Lakers hit the last minute and it was also a victory. From Philadelphia's point of view, they have not yet played with the Lakers without Davis and James, and the situation in the playoffs may not be too good.
In recent years, Philadelphia has averaged three or four in the East, and its lack of motivation illustrates a certain problem. The ceiling for this team may not be high and have not found a route that really suits them. In this league, if there is no system, no specific style of play, it is difficult to win the championship. Rivers is not a systematic coach, his only championship was won under the full cooperation of the Big Three, whose maturity exceeds that of any team in the current league, and Rivers has quenched it.
Today's stars have their own ideas, each has its own goals, the team's lineup structure is not very reasonable, they do not have the cohesion of the Team of The Year, so the effect of Rivers's method is limited. This game allows us to see some of Philadelphia's future through one lens. Embiid's last look was completely blank, listless, uninterested, unable to find excitement.
This look in his eyes reminds me of Paul's look up at the scoreboard after the 2018 playoffs, the look in his eyes, which is a sense of emptiness and helplessness for the future. Where did Embiid's look come from? This brings us to the fact that Philadelphia's technical play in the middle of the fourth quarter did not pass through Embiid's hand, and it was transmitted once or twice to shoot, but fortunately they hit some shots, temporarily stopping the Lakers' momentum of chasing points.
If the Lakers have a good lineup and momentum, Philadelphia may suffer losses in this time, and the most upset person is Embiid. Another problem is that at this stage, Harden also did not take on the task of scoring, but passed more, and the score came from the activity of the role players. This will become a norm in Philadelphia.
Harden basically did not score in the second half of the fourth quarter, and there were mistakes sent to Westbrook, the state is average, of course, the Lakers adopted a bag-and-clip strategy. However, it can be seen that Harden's ability to break the bag clip has been seriously insufficient, first of all, the action is not active, and then it is not decisive enough.
Harden was 7 of 18 in this game, including 1 of 6 three-pointers, and the feel of the three-point shot still did not come back. A certain reason is that the Lakers still adopted a certain bag strategy, resulting in Harden not having so many shots. The fact that Harden's three-pointer level has indeed dropped too much is a fact that has to be faced.
Harden still had 10 free throws and hit nine, and in terms of free throw stats, Embiid had 12 more and hit eight. Embiid made 11-of-18 shooting from two-point range and maintained a high shooting percentage. In the second half, he defended mid-range and fast-range attacks, winning under the Lakers basket many times, showing the advantage of a center. The Lakers' center is Howard, which has not significantly inhibited Embiid's play, but Howard is on the floor, and the Lakers still earn.
Howard's plus-minus is -11, indicating that he lost to the Lakers when he was on the court, but the result of the loss should be analyzed in more detail, and we see that he also scored 24 points, which has greatly helped the Lakers.
Howard had 4 fouls, of which he received a second by about 4 minutes in the first quarter, which was a normal phenomenon. Later fouls while defending Embiid were also inevitable. But his 9-of-14 shooting percentage and the combination with Westbrook sounded a wake-up call for the Lakers.
Howard was very well-rounded, not only scoring 24 points, but also scoring 9 rebounds and 8 assists, a quasi-triple-double statistic. What does this data mean?
It shows that Howard has always had an effect, and there are a lot of effects, the Lakers DNP him, definitely not for basketball reasons. The reason why Vogel did not go to Howard before, we have analyzed many times, interested fans to find out on their own, but you just have to remember, "not on him is not to create space for Westbrook" this is enough.
In hot events, we will find that the IQ of hot reviews is not high, and almost all hot reviews lack thinking, which is the inevitable expansion of human nature by the Internet. As a contemporary person, you should learn to analyze heat events and form truly correct ideas, rather than following the tide.
But the Internet is always wrapped in a gentle illusion, making people immersed in it, making people unconsciously domesticated, brainwashed, maybe they are too doting, but I want to tell you that becoming smart must have a better pleasure than becoming chaotic.
Westbrook, Munch and Anthony all performed well in this game, all scoring more than 20 points, Westbrook and Howard scored 24 points, Munch had a beautiful point-chasing performance, and Anthony had a beautiful singles performance. However, they also have the situation of being chased, and it should be admitted here that the overall strength of the Lakers does have a gap with the opponent, and it has completely improved to play like this.
In fact, Munch has a strong demand for possession, and Westbrook naturally needless to say, when James is not on the floor, their freedom is sufficient, although there is only one game, we still see a lot of gratifying places. The Lakers' ball is normal, and it is what a group of NBA players should look like.