110-128！ The Lakers lost an incredibly crucial game, they suffered a three-game losing streak while being overtaken by the Spurs behind them, slipping to 11th in the Western Conference, meaning they had fallen out of the playoffs.
In this game, James is suspended due to injury, and Davis, who has returned to training, has not yet played, according to the current trend, they are likely to miss the playoffs, and even some fans say that "the Lakers are the first team to prepare for the 22-23 season", which is extremely ironic.
Why did the Lakers, who are not bad in the book lineup, fall to where they are today? The first is that the management made a mistake in the market operation in the offseason, sending away the two major role players pop and Kuzma, in exchange for Wei Shao, who was extremely incompatible with James, whose shooting efficiency plagued the Lakers for a whole season and directly affected the operation of the team's tactical system.
The second is that Davis did not make the expected progress, but had a downward trend in the state, the mid-season injury made the Lakers worse, the 38-year-old James did not have the dominance of the team to lead the team to the Finals, the Lakers instantly fell into the edge of the playoffs, facing the western powers at all.
In fact, a careful analysis of the Lakers' failures this season has some commonalities with James's first year here, that is, the lineup and the characteristics of James's own system do not match, when the team had young potential stocks such as Ingram, Ball Brother, Kuzma, etc., but no one could really form a 1+1>2 effect with old Zhan, and finally became a single-core team with playing.
And when the 2020 championship is obviously different, the Lakers have a thick eyebrow Brother Davis, the top two, to help James share a lot of offensive pressure, and then like Danny Green, Pope, Caruso and other outside lines have both defensive and shooting capabilities, the inside line has Howard and McGee such sports blue-collar, everyone has a clear division of labor, give full play to James's scoring and organizational role.
Unfortunately, after the Lakers won the championship, they cleverly dismantled the original team, introduced players such as Xiao Jia, Harrell, Schroeder, etc., who seemed to be more capable, but actually completely did not fit into the system, resulting in their own transformation from a defending champion to a round of tour teams, so Pelinka simply broke the jar and broke, directly formed a set of elderly lineups, resulting in a situation of chicken feathers today.
Counting this year, James's four-year Lakers career has missed the playoffs for two years, but can he be said to have failed? The answer must be no, and four years in exchange for a championship trophy has allowed James to consolidate his position as the "second man in history" and allowed him to gain a foothold in a big city like Los Angeles, strengthening his business map.
Now for James, one more championship actually does not have much impact, because his historical status is still not beyond the god of basketball, the only thing he can suppress Jordan now is the total data of his career, he has broken through 37,000 points this season, and surpassing Jabbar in the next two years is a sure thing, with the great feat of 4+1+1, plus the total score of the first place in the playoffs, although the value cannot be compared with the championship ring, but there is every reason to compete with Jordan.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Lakers have helped James get everything he wants, a fourth championship, a business map, resource connections and the opportunity to break various data records on the central stage, compared to what is the two-year missed playoffs?