In a just-concluded NBA regular season game, the Lakers welcomed the Pelicans at home. The importance of this game is self-evident, for the Lakers to win the game can still maintain the hope of advancing to the playoffs, once the losing team is basically out of touch with the playoffs. This is not alarmist, because in the subsequent games, except for the Thunder, which are slightly weaker, the rest are strong teams, such as the Suns, Warriors, Nuggets and so on. Facing such an opponent, what will the Lakers take to win?
In the game, the Lakers' big three played well. James made 23 shots in 39 minutes, hitting 13 goals, cutting 38 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal; Davis shot 17 times in the 36 minutes of playing, hitting 8 goals, cutting 23 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists; Westbrook shot 15 times in the 30 minutes of playing, hitting 5 goals, cutting 12 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds. Seeing Wei Shao's shooting rate, many fans felt that he played poorly. In fact, on the contrary, in the crucial fourth quarter, Wei Shao suddenly went crazy, scoring 10 points alone, and was the Best Player of the Lakers in this section.
If the Big Three are doing well, why did the Lakers lose? One of the important reasons is that Vogel's platoon arrangement is very problematic. In this game, Vogel changed another set of starting lineups, which is not to be said, after all, Zhan Mei is going to come back in the game. In terms of rotating lineups, Vogel used Munch, Stanley Johnson, Gabriel, Augustine, and ignored Reeves, Ariza, Tucker, who had played in the starting lineup before. Vogel's idea of employing people really makes people unable to touch their heads, and the combination that is hard to grind together must be broken up with a stick. It can be said unceremoniously that Vogel must be responsible for the loss of this game.
In fact, Vogel's employment strategy was questioned as early as the beginning of the season, such as when he was not optimistic about Howard and often changed the starting lineup. If you only look at the strength of paper, the gap in staffing between today's Lakers and the Lakers who won the championship before is not large. However, the players in the team could never be pinched together.
Vogel's platooning method exposes the Lakers' biggest stubborn disease, which unfortunately ends this season and has not been treated. With 5 devils left on the schedule, can the Lakers still hold out? Theoretically, the Lakers still have the possibility of getting a playoff playoff ticket. However, this is only theoretical.