Although the victory over the Raptors may seem a bit embarrassing, the Lakers' home-court advantage is a bit bigger, but anyway, from the Lakers' point of view, winning is always a good thing, because their winning rate is gradually lowered, and they are gradually falling behind in the championship group, and in order to enter the sprint stage with a relatively good momentum before the start of the second half of the schedule, the Lakers need to win as many consecutive home games as possible. Five of the Lakers' next six regular season games are at home, and in Anthony Davis' words, they really need to make the most of that schedule to earn themselves a better standings. 36 million, back to the Lakers, the departure turmoil haunts you, and the Purple and Gold Army loves and hates you.
Whether it is sophistication or the referee's care, after two consecutive defeats at home and four consecutive defeats overall, the Lakers finally ushered in a long-lost two-game winning streak in the encryption center (Lakers' home court), which is also the Lakers' first consecutive win since winning the midseason championship, plus they re-pulled the winning rate back to 50%, it is enough to see how crucial these two wins are for the Lakers. These two wins, in terms of lineup, the Lakers and the previous consecutive defeats, if you have to find some differences, that is, the comeback of D'Angelo Russell, after Russell's injury, the Lakers suffered 3 consecutive defeats (a total of 4 consecutive defeats), and the Lakers won the two games after his return.
Of course, this is not to say that most of the Lakers' wins are due to Russell's credit or something, nor is it for Russell's greed, but one thing is clear that Russell's return has indeed brought great help to the Lakers, after Russell, even if he has not entered his best state in terms of shooting touch, but obviously after James is off the court, the Lakers have another person who can control the offense with the ball, and their offense will not suddenly lose power and will not fall into chaos for a long time, which is the biggest difference between the Lakers and the previous losing streak。 In addition, during Russell's absence, the Lakers have always been in the 8-man rotation, no way, Hachimura and Vincent can't play, unless the "can't play" Schifino is brought up, the Lakers can only use the playoff rotation.
Russell has solved the Lakers' urgent needs to a certain extent, but to be honest, his role in the Lakers team feels very awkward. Take this game as an example, before the start of the final quarter, Russell shot 4 of 7 and 2 of 5 three-pointers, with a very impressive shooting rate, and he also contributed 11 points and 5 assists, with a plus/minus of +7 on the court, the highest in the Lakers. In other words, when Russell went down, the Lakers lost by six points. Let's take a look at Reaves' play, before the end of the quarter, Reaves was 2 of 9, 4 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists, this performance, coupled with the defensive end due to talent problems, could not block the Raptors' forward group, it is not an exaggeration to describe Reaves' play as a disaster.
Russell only played 16 minutes in total, and then went down after three minutes in the final quarter. Obviously, Russell's role in the Lakers has been down and down. In fact, when Russell decided to sign a two-year, $36 million contract with the Lakers in the offseason and return to the Lakers' lineup, he was determined to prove himself and complete self-redemption. And at the beginning of the season, Russell's performance was also very impressive, he averaged nearly 18 points and 6 assists per game, and the three-point shooting rate exceeded 40%. But after the mid-season tournament, Russell was completely lost, which was inseparable from trade rumors.
Even if Russell plays well, all the trade rumors about the Lakers revolve around Russell, to be honest, if you change anyone, when you frequently hear that the team and organization you play for may not want you, anyone's mentality will be shocked, which will affect the performance on the court. Russell's data and efficiency have begun to plummet. If you can't play at the start, then you will be substituted, and if the performance of the substitute is average, then continue to reduce the time. Russell is not only disliked by Lakers fans, but even the Lakers' coaching staff has begun to weaken his role.
Russell did suffer a lot of injustice, it seems that from the beginning, he was destined to leave the Lakers, his outstanding performance, in the eyes of fans, seems to be to give the Lakers a boost of chips, even if Reaves is taken to the bench, it is Russell who stays in the start, in the eyes of more people, this is just that the Lakers don't want Russell to collapse mentally, hoping that he can "brush" some good data, and finally sell it for a good price. However, when Russell was out, the Lakers realized that the team couldn't live without him. Without Russell, the Lakers no longer have a traditional playmaker other than James, and Russell's current state makes the Lakers love and hate.