The day before, when the Pelicans lost to the Spurs, it looked like their rankings were temporarily slipping, effectively putting the Lakers on the top of the bar. 0.5 games ahead of the Pelicans and 1.5 games ahead of the Spurs before the game, the remaining schedule is in the top three of the league, in fact, the two games for the Pelicans are the Lakers' life and death battle. In this game, the Lakers played the best first half of the season; but with a 20-point lead at halftime, the Lakers lost again.
At the beginning of the season, Wei Shao was brought in with a basic salary to introduce a large number of players who can attack, indicating that when the Lakers transitioned from defensive teams in the past two years to offensive teams, high scores such as 69 points in the half were expected by the outside world. Of course, the reason why the Lakers can play a 69-point performance in this game is not because they played flawlessly in the first half of the offense, but because their defense was very good.
The Lakers' first defensive turn of this game, James, who is habitually defensive this season, pressed jones with the ball on the whole court. With this ball as a start, the Lakers showed a defensive rotation speed and retreat speed that is extremely rare this season in the first half; it is clear that the Pelicans in the first half did not adapt to the Lakers' defensive intensity. And as long as they can prevent it, the Lakers can push the counterattack up, and Old Zhan scored in doubles in less than three minutes, at which time the Lakers have played a Pelican 12-0. Earlier, it was only 10-0, and the Pelicans had already called a pause.
Even if slowly Ingram, Big Varland, and CJ took turns to win on the offensive end with singles; but throughout the first half, there was a picture of the Pelicans not being able to hit and being converted or semi-converted by the Lakers.
If the Lakers can maintain the defensive posture of the first two quarters, the Pelicans are unlikely to turn the tables. But in the third quarter, the Lakers' defense collapsed first; the root of the collapse actually stemmed from Vogel's poor on-the-spot adjustments... With 8 minutes and 15 seconds left in the third quarter, the Lakers were still 19 points ahead; then Ingram scored two consecutive rounds, Murphy III made up the deduction to narrow the point difference to 12 points, the Lakers called a timeout; after this timeout, Vogel changed his mind, he sent Munch, Anthony, these offensive can be sent up, took Gabriel, Howard, Westbrook this kind of can defend... The opponent's offensive momentum does not respond to the defensive end, but instead replaces the one that can be defended, and some of the defense is not very good, which in itself seems very strange. Not to mention that after the players who can attack come up, the Lakers' offense has not improved significantly, but the defense is unable to see, playing to the last two rounds of the third quarter, the Pelicans have narrowed the point difference to a ball.
Of course, if Vogel can react to the problem in time, there is still a chance to stop the decline; but at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Vogel's faction is still able to attack the lineup. It wasn't until the Pelicans overtaken that Vogel re-replaced the defensive ones. However, at the critical moment, when Wei Shao was the most able to grab and defend the Lakers on the court, it also marked that Vogel had put the defense aside. It's just that James obviously can't move at the end, and the Lakers' own offensive space is extremely bad; except for Vogel and Pelinka, no one will think that this Lakers is an offensive team, but Vogel has to use his worst offense to fight for his life.
A coach who claims to be good at leading defense, in the first half of the game of leading by 20 points by defense, suddenly forgot about the stubble of defense in the second half, had to fight for offense, no one could understand what Vogel was going to do.
Being overtaken by the Pelicans, only one game ahead of the Spurs, and the play-off seat is already in jeopardy; the reason why the Lakers have fallen to the point where they are this season is directly related to Vogel's constant blindness. For example, friends who know Wei Shao know that Wei Shao is in the Thunder, and the Wizards are very called with the center; but Vogel has abandoned Howard for a long time on the grounds that Wei Shao needs space. For example, we all know that Westbrook needs more ball rights, let him lead the second lineup, and the flanks should have a few pitchers. But at the beginning of the season, the Lakers' second-team, often Rondo controlled the ball, Westbrook played no ball; later Rondo DNP until the departure of the team, Vogel connection section still had to put Tucker, Stanley. Johnson, who is worse than Westbrook by three points, puts him next to Westbrook... Even if people can't understand it, Vogel's tactical arrangement is also incomprehensible. When the Lakers fall into the position, there will often be 1 hit, and the other 4 scenes will stand and watch, what exactly did Vogel lead the team to practice?
James, Anthony, Tucker, Westbrook, Augustine's death five small, what kind of tactical ghosts can be discharged? And in the case of this year's Lakers, their loss to the Pelicans is really not called news; but the halftime lead of 20 points was overturned, James did not carry the pot, Westbrook did not carry the pot, Howard did not back the pot, Anthony did not back the pot... To put it bluntly, coaches suck.
And this season, the Lakers' roster itself has this or that problem; and encountered a "crazy chemist" sitting here in a nonsensical experiment, even if it seems that playing the playoffs is the Lakers' bottom line; but even if the regular season ends, can get stuck before the Spurs, this Lakers can make the playoffs? Realistically, the Lakers this season really have no hope.