The NBA regular season matchup is still in full swing, this season the league is competing for supremacy, more and more teams have joined forces with superstars, and some young dark horse teams have also begun to rise, and if they want to impact the playoffs, the competition will be very fierce. This season, many big teams are under a lot of pressure, they have a fairly luxurious squad, with historical superstars, but it is difficult to rush to the top of the rankings. Like the Los Angeles Lakers, compared with last season, the Lakers' lineup has obviously been upgraded, after the introduction of a group of forward players, the Lakers' defense has been strengthened, and the disadvantage is gone, but this season, they are still playing tepidly, and they have been at the level of the middle of the West.
In fact, in addition to James and thick eyebrows, the Lakers also have Russell, Wood and other quasi-All-Star level players, Russell is a real All-Star, Wood was also a big leader of the Rockets two years ago, including Reaves, is also a popular player, Reaves ranked 10th in the Western All-Star guard vote this season, even higher than Booker. The Lakers have a luxury lineup in hand, but they can't solve the shortcomings of the team's weak projection and few independent offensive scoring points, and they can't break through the ceiling. Like the Lakers, the Golden State Warriors have also encountered trouble this season, thinking that after sending Poole away, the Warriors can solve the conflicts within the team and get back on track, but they didn't expect them to have more problems this season, and the conflicts within the team still exist, from Poole and Green, to Kuminga and the coaching staff.
Kuminga was not satisfied with his status as a team and wanted more playing time, and at the same time, Dream Green repeatedly failed to change his coaches, and he was suspended for a series of malicious fouls in the game. Substitute core Chris Paul is unlucky, fractured left hand, return date is undecided, Warriors several core scoring points, Curry, Thompson and Wiggins three giants, offensive efficiency has declined, Curry has scored at least 1 three-point in each game of the regular season in the past 5 years, and 0 three-pointers in two games in the past 1 month, which shows how bad his state is, the Warriors' current win rate is less than 50%, it seems that they have really come to fall off the altar. I thought that the Suns, who are also giants in the West, would gradually get rid of the pace of the Lakers and Warriors, but I didn't expect the Suns to look like this, and even the bottom team in the West couldn't beat it.
In the offseason last summer, the Suns made a big move and directly sent away the team's two core players, Paul and Ayton. The reason for sending Paul away was that the Suns felt Paul couldn't raise their ceiling, that the playoff role was limited, and that Paul himself was too old and too far from his prime. The reason for sending Ayton away is that Ayton and the management of the team have some discord, and the management failed to give Ayton the ideal big contract in the past few years, resulting in Ayton not being able to play hard, and the Suns can't stand it anymore, so they decisively send him to other teams. While sending Paul and Ayton away, the Suns also welcomed a lot of new signings in the offseason, trading Bradley Beal, Allen, Nurkic, signing Gordon, Yuta Watanabe, Bol and other instant rotation players to continue to enhance the team's offensive firepower.
At that time, it was said that the Suns were the league's No. 1 offensive team this season, and if you look closely, this is also the case, their starting lineup has Durant, Beal, Booker, three super scorers, all three of them have the experience of leading the team, Beal has two seasons, scoring more than 30+ points per game, and his personal offensive ability is very comprehensive, and the new center Nurkic is also a new generation of offensive interior players, with the ability to shoot three-point shots, including Allen on their bench, Gordon, all of whom are good offensive players, Allen joined the Suns this season, and his performance was really amazing, scoring 30+ points in a single game many times, and he was able to stand up and turn the tide when the core players were not feeling good. Despite this, the Suns' overall performance this season has not been satisfactory, and in the past game, they suffered a shock defeat to the Grizzlies without Morant.
In this game, the Suns' shortcomings are fully revealed, first of all, the defensive ability is extremely poor, several core defenses don't seem to be very good, Durant has defensive talent, but no defensive enthusiasm, his hands are not willing to stretch out, Booker's arm span is too short, his defensive awareness is not good, and he is often out of position, Beal himself is not a star known for his defense, and the Suns have few players with defensive attributes. In addition, the Suns didn't know who to give the ball to at critical moments, which was a very tricky problem, and the game against the Grizzlies ended with Beal's last key mistake and buried the game. In the end, the most important thing for the Suns to overcome is the impact of injuries, this season's Big Three are injured in turn, which is a bit outrageous, the three cores all have injury risks, and when it comes to the playoffs with greater confrontation intensity, I don't know if I can withstand it. The most suspenseful thing this season is, who of the three teams, the Suns, the Lakers and the Warriors, will go further?