Lakers player Howard scored 24 points today, his highest since Nov. 17, 2018. Although the Lakers lost to the 76ers today, Howard's performance is really not bad, and it can even be described as perfect. Today he played 28 minutes and played 9-of-14 with 24 points and 8 rebounds, and in terms of efficiency, he seems to have lost 76ers core Embiid. Lakers fans who watched this game should understand that the team's mediocre record this season has a bad rotation in addition to injuries, and Lakers head coach Vogel has an unshirkable responsibility. His level of employment rotation is disappointing.
How should Vogel's rotation be described? Even though he has good defensive ability, he has destroyed this good game of chess in the rotation. Vogel has two prominent problems this season, the first is that he is too superstitious about the five small lineups, and today's NBA small-ball trend is prevalent, and many teams are playing in the five small lineups. Warriors greenshirts Raptors and other teams will put up a small lineup to harvest the game at a critical moment, in fact, the Lakers are also loyal fans of the small lineup this season. They put James in the center position, and as a result, James played the highest offensive efficiency in nearly 10 years, averaging nearly 30+8+6 per game, which can impact the NBA's leading scorer this season.
But small lineups tend to harvest games, and a 48-minute game that plays a small lineup all the time is completely lifting a stone and dropping it on one's own feet. Vogel took the defense to the extreme when he coached the Pacers, nearly beating the Heat Big Three. At that time, they had two towers in the interior of West and Hibbert, and the excellent interior defense ensured the stability of the team's attack and defense. Now the Lakers are too superstitious about the small lineup, and the defense has no competition with the other side.
Second, Vogel has often replaced players in good form this season. A typical example is Howard, for example, who, although older, is still highly efficient at the end. Howard, who has averaged 15 minutes per game this season, has scored nearly 6 points, and his shooting percentage is still not less than 60%, and this year's NBA's defensive intensity is very large, and there are not many players who shoot more than 60% of the shots. The elderly Howard is still one of them, Howard's sense of termination, including the ability to attack twice, is very good, and his hands are improving. His offensive skills became abundant. Of course, Howard will go all out on the pitch, and he will never paddle absolutely positively.
However, Howard's excellent performance still did not get Vogel's trust. Vogel often let Howard play for a few minutes and then get off the field, and all the good conditions howard had saved were gone. Westbrook and James have faced similar situations this season, having been in hot form for a while before being replaced by Vogel. In the face of MVP candidate Embiid Howard played 24+8 data, the data and performance proved that Howard still has a lot of oil, he can still play a lot of time, still can contribute to the team.
Howard's excellent performance may have accelerated Vogel's graduation process. Lakers fans have been dissatisfied with Howard's treatment this season, and Vogel really can't use people like this. The Lakers are still in the play-offs, and they have to spend a lot of effort to impact the playoffs. In the last period, Vogel changed his mind as soon as possible, giving Howard more playing time and allowing him to improve the team's defense. Readers, what do you think?