The road loss to the Denver Nuggets ushered in the opening four consecutive losses for the Los Angeles Lakers, and the outside world may be slightly surprised by such a result. But after careful analysis, it is reasonable that the Lakers' own roster structure is a little deformed, and the first four games are successively against the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Portland Trail Blazers and Denver Nuggets, these are playoffs and even championship-level teams, and the schedule is not very friendly to the Lakers.
In the game against the Nuggets, although the James Mei combination combined for 41 points, 21 rebounds and 14 assists, the rest of the Lakers players really couldn't help, except for Lonnie Walker, who cut 15 points, all other players without exception did not reach double digits. For the Lakers, it can really be said that the house leak happened to rain overnight, and in the next seven games, the Lakers will encounter consecutive encounters including the Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets, New Orleans Pelicans, Utah Jazz, Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Clippers, all of which seem to be difficult to entangle. And in addition to the Jazz who are temporarily unsure of the real goals of the season, other teams are at least favorite contenders in the playoffs, which shows that every game of the Lakers in the next half a month will be a bitter and bitter battle.
After playing the Nuggets, the Lakers' road trip is still not over, and they will face the Timberwolves soon. This offseason, the Timberwolves recruited everywhere, especially in exchange for Rudy Gobert, and Carl Anthony Towns formed an inside twin tower, which made the Timberwolves gain enough eyeballs. For the Lakers, one thing is quite favorable, that is, the Timberwolves are still in the run-in period, their offensive space seems to be a little unopened, although in the first five games, the Timberwolves have a 3-2 record, but the opponents are the Thunder, Spurs and Jazz, the schedule is relatively relaxed, it seems unconvincing, and the Lakers need to seize the opportunity to see if they can use this to end the losing streak.
Then the Lakers are going back to their home court, but they have to play against the Nuggets again. In fact, with the return of Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. this season, the Nuggets have greatly strengthened their strength, and they have already beaten the defending champions on the road at the beginning of the season. Although Michael Porter Jr. was absent due to back spasms this time, the Nuggets still won relatively easily, according to head coach Mallon, Michael Porter Jr. is not seriously injured and can return soon, so it should be able to catch up with the next game against the Lakers, when the pressure on the Purple and Gold is bound to be even greater.
After that, the Lakers will face the New Orleans Pelicans, the two teams are quite related, Brandon Ingram is a Lakers veteran, and Anthony Davis is the former Pelicans owner, forced the palace to leave the team and came to the Lakers. It's just that today is different, after two years of asset accumulation, the Pelicans seem to have ushered in a transformation, the new season began in addition to losing to the Jazz, the Pelicans maintained a complete victory, including the first game to beat the Nets, and lightly beat the Charlotte Hornets, and more unexpectedly, the Pelicans defeated the Dallas Mavericks led by Luka Doncic without Chaine Williamson, Brandon Ingram and Herbert Jones. Since the Lakers need to provide the Pelicans with a large number of first-round picks in the coming years, this will make them more motivated, and the game is naturally full of highlights.
In the next three games, the Lakers will fight the Jazz twice, according to the outside world's predictions, the Jazz will be the favorite to compete for the championship signing, but from the beginning of the season, the Jazz are not ready to be captured, in addition to losing to the Rockets in successive battles, the Jazz have advanced all the way, and now have a record of 4 wins and 1 loss. If the victory over the Rockets wasn't surprising, the Jazz Linker Nuggets, Timberwolves and Pelicans are golden. During this period, the Lakers will also play at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers, who as the old club of LeBron James, have rebounded significantly in the past two years, Evan Mobley, Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen have all improved rapidly, and the Cavaliers have exchanged Donovan Mitchell this summer, and after losing to the Toronto Raptors in the first game of the new season, the Cavaliers have won three consecutive games, and they are no longer the fish belly troops they once were.
After this series of tests, the Lakers will have their second Los Angeles derby of the season, again against the Clippers. The first time the two sides met, although the Clippers roster was not neat, and the core of the team, Kawhi Leonard, even played as a substitute, but the Clippers still took the initiative from beginning to end, and even the inside player Zubac was tumbling under the Lakers basket, so this needs to be paid special attention to the next meeting.
The Lakers won't have a slightly easier schedule until the middle of next month, when they meet the Sacramento Kings, Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers, teams with relatively average strength and swing intentions on paper. But for the current Lakers, they need to find a way to get through this half a month, the Lakers are simply facing the devil's schedule at the beginning, they need to increase the winning rate to about fifty percent or even more as soon as possible, otherwise the Lakers are likely to be dragged down in the case of digging holes in the opening game, and miss the playoffs for the second consecutive year, but it is a high probability event.