The Lakers narrowly defeated the Clippers 106-103 in Los Angeles, but for head coach Ham and the Lakers, the crisis is far from over.
Not only did it not be lifted, but the situation became more complicated, because the Clippers in the same city derby could not have been separated from the role of backup center Wood and point guard Russell, and it was they who saved the Lakers a 10-point advantage at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter to allow the Lakers to have enough savings to splurge in the final half of the quarter.
Russell was the focus of the Lakers' trade rumors, Wood was marginalized not long ago, and almost ran out of balls, but 11 of Russell's 13 points today came in the second half, including three three-pointers, and Wood grabbed six key rebounds and 10 rebounds in the process of pulling away a 10-point advantage.
Halfway through the season, head coach Ham is still experimenting with various combinations of lineups, but the results have not been good. Who to keep and who to use? Wood and Russell's performance against the Clippers presented another problem for the Lakers.
After four consecutive defeats, they just beat the Thunder, and the Lakers came back with a four-game losing streak, pushing several people to the forefront: head coach Ham, Russell, Hachimura.
Russell and Hachimura were involved in trade rumors, not because they didn't play well, but because they had their own merits, and the contract was not big, so there was trade value. Russell's projection ability is what the Lakers lack the most, but his passing skills overlap James and Reaves, and his defense is his flaw. Hachimura's offense and defense are relatively comprehensive, and other teams are willing to accept it.
But when a team with high hopes is in the doldrums for a long time, the first person who can take the blame is the coach, because you can't fire the stars.
We are not in a position to question the coach's ability, but after almost half a season, Ham has not found the most effective combination of the Lakers' roster, and this responsibility cannot be shirked in any way.
Since winning the midseason tournament, the Lakers have used six different starting combinations, not to mention rotation. In addition to the impact of injuries, the main reason is that Ham have never been able to find a balance between attack and defence.
The emphasis on defense, the offense is not working, the offense is improved, the defense is down again, and this is where Ham is in a dilemma.
Ham have used ten different starting combinations, Reaves has played as a starter, and now he is a starter, Russell has been demoted to the bench, Vanderbilt has returned from injury and has been relegated to the bench in the last three games, which shows that Ham has seriously vacillated in terms of hiring standards.
The number of games in the NBA is huge, and the frequent change of starters and rotation order can make players seriously uncomfortable, and performance can go up and down. There are only three or four people who can maintain the Lakers' base in this process: James, Davis, Reaves, plus Prince.
These four can become the basic handicap precisely because they are one of the few in the team with relatively comprehensive offense and defense, and the rest are either fierce in defense but not projecting, or Russell and Wood are good in projection but average in defense.
The Lakers started 10 different sets
| victory | negative | Starting combinations |
| 8 | 4 | A. Davis/L. James/T. Prince/C. Reddish/D. Russell |
| 2 | 3 | A. Davis/L. James/T. Prince/A. Reaves/D. Russell |
| 2 | 3 | M. Christie/A. Davis/L. James/T. Prince/D. Russell |
| 2 | 1 | A. Davis/R. Hachimura/T. Prince/C. Reddish/D. Russell |
| 1 | 2 | A. Davis/L. James/T. Prince/C. Reddish/J. Vanderbilt |
| 3 | A. Davis/L. James/T. Prince/A. Reaves/C. Reddish | |
| 1 | 1 | A. Davis/R. Hachimura/L. James/T. Prince/J. Vanderbilt |
| 1 | 1 | A. Davis/L. James/A. Reaves/C. Reddish/D. Russell |
| 1 | L. James/T. Prince/A. Reaves/D. Russell/C. Wood | |
| 1 | M. Christie/J. Hayes/L. James/T. Prince/A. Reaves |
The more you lose, the more you lose, the more you lose, so the Lakers fall into a strange circle, and the center Davis who hurts the most is it. Initially, the Lakers could ensure victory as long as he overturned the sea, but after the midseason tournament, even if he overturned the sea, the Lakers could not win, such as losing by 40 points against the Celtics, and the Timberwolves scoring 31 and 33 points in the two games without winning.
Due to the Lakers' three-point shooting, the opponent is shrinking more and more to limit Davis, and even James's best Zhan Mei connection, simple outside passing, is often destroyed. James has made 4 turnovers in 3 of the last 4 games, because of 3 consecutive turnovers in the fourth quarter, the Lakers were defeated by the Grizzlies, and the loss to the Heat was as many as 21 turnovers, and against the Clippers, the Lakers made 5 turnovers in the first quarter and lost the lead, resulting in half-time passivity, with 19 turnovers in the whole game, which conceded 18 points.
Despite the win over the Clippers, the Lakers also made a terrible three-point shot, scoring just 11, and if it weren't for Russell's second-half save, it would have been a single-digit goal. In the last five games, the Lakers have scored a total of 42 three-pointers, an average of only 8.4 per game, and this kind of outside firepower will only make Davis more and more surrounded by people around him the more he hits.
You might say, why did the Lakers find so many people who couldn't shoot threes in the summer? Reddish, Vanderbilt, and Hayes didn't have three-pointers, but they started all the time, or were in the start. This is determined by the Lakers' tactical philosophy, Pelinka originally intended to arrange big men around Davis who can rush and rush, and get a lot of counterattack opportunities by defending the opponent's offense, which is what James and Davis are best at and like.
At the beginning of the season, although the Lakers' projection flaws were also obvious, the opponent did not dare to tighten too tightly, as the game gradually entered the halfway, more and more opponents understood that as long as the contraction limited Davis, the Lakers' half-court offense would be over, and they could also grab a lot of rebounds and mistakes of the Lakers to counterattack, you must know that fast counterattacks are not only Lakers, but every team.
If you want to trade on this issue and improve the outside offense, it will run counter to the starting point of the Lakers' big lineup and defensive lineup formulated in the summer, and actually negate the preset strategy for the whole season, so the Lakers will always hesitate to trade it.
Wood's performance in the second half today was noteworthy, and he was clearly more positive than usual, as he made his fifth rebounding double-double of the season, and the first four were all at the start of the season, with the highest game coming against the Clippers with 11 rebounds. Since December, Wood hasn't rebounded like this.
Although Ham never wanted to start Wood because of defensive shortcomings, Wood also did not expect that as the mid-season tournament became more and more intense, he would gradually lose his ability to play. The reason why it was reactivated during the last 4 consecutive defeats was because of Hachimura's injury.
Wood didn't have anything spectacular in the first half, but at the end of the third quarter he made back-to-back blocks, dunks, and rebounds to give the Lakers an 81-77 lead. Wood was still on the court at the beginning of the fourth quarter, and he grabbed four rebounds in four minutes, including the pass to Russell, which is quite an essential feature of the Lakers' defensive counterattack.
Ham should note that Wood was playing next to Davis at this time, and the Lakers' twin-tower lineup was designed for the summer, but it didn't work from Hayes to Vanderbilt.
After two pulls to 10 points, Ham brought on Vanderbilt for Wood.
Substitutions on the basketball court are always consequential. After the change, the effect becomes bad, that is, the coach will not use people, whoever plays well will play, and after the change, he will rest for a while and then come back and play well, which is called employing people and not using people old. Unfortunately for Ham in this game, the Lakers' 10-point advantage was gone.
Before Coach Ham played the Clippers, he defended himself: Don't always stare at one or two games, the regular season is like a marathon, and there is still a long time. He also said that he is very stable, his aunt and Pei are always very supportive, and we are in a trench. However, the Lakers have no other industry, just this team, which is very sensitive to market reactions, and Vogel can't keep it even if he wins the championship for the Lakers.
But no matter what, the Lakers' performance against Wood and Russell was surprising, at best, it gave them more ideas for employing people, and at worst, they really gave Pelinka a headache and a dilemma.