36 points of defeat, 27 points of defeat, from the championship favorite to the bottom of the league, a good card is sparsely played, the NBA is really going to change, and the traditional strong teams are beginning to come to an end!
Text: Lao Kan Kanqiu
Editor|Lao Kan Kanqiu
The NBA regular season is almost halfway through, and the situation in the east and west of the league has been roughly decided, and many teams have played surprising performances. Like the Magic team in the East, which jumped from last season's fish belly team to the top eight in the East, relying on defense to play steadily, and the Pacers, with NBA-like historical offensive efficiency, advanced to the top four in the East. The Celtics have gone through a major adjustment of the lineup in the offseason, and there has been no run-in problem, relying on the league's most luxurious starting lineup to rise strongly, firmly sitting at the top of the Eastern Conference, with a home record of 18-0, and the only team in the league that has remained unbeaten at home so far.
In contrast, the West is more competitive, but there is no shortage of surprising teams. Like the Timberwolves and Thunder, as the two biggest dark horses in the league this season, they have a record in the top two in the West. Another Los Angeles Clippers, since Harden joined, although they have suffered a wave of 6 consecutive defeats, but recently played a very dominant performance, winning 16 of the last 19 games, losing only 3 games, from the bottom three in the West all the way to the fourth place in the West, only 1 win away from the defending champion Nuggets in the third place in the West, and only 2 wins away from the Timberwolves at the top of the West。
However, there are surprises and there are disappointing teams. For example, several giants in the West, the Lakers, Suns and Warriors, are in worse shape than the other. The Lakers also won the midseason championship, and then their form began to decline, but in the last two games, the Clippers and the Raptors have won two consecutive victories, and the form has picked up. And for the Warriors and Suns, it can't be described as disappointment, it's ugly. 36 points of defeat and 27 points of defeat! From the favorite to the bottom of the league, a good card is smashed, and the NBA is about to change!
Let's talk about the Warriors first, just against the Pelicans, they suffered a miserable 36-point defeat, losing six of their last eight games, and their form is worrying. The reason is that Kerr's meritorious basketball is seriously hurting the future of the team, relying on old players, and rookie players are abandoned no matter how good they are, and they will not be reused, which has also encountered crazy doubts from Warriors fans and the media.
In addition, the state of the Warriors' 'Iron Triangle' is extremely unstable, Curry has performed perfectly at the beginning of the game, but he has struggled recently, and his shooting percentage has dropped sharply, while Klay Thompson has been a god from beginning to end, and his state has been up and down, and Dream Green has been banned many times this season, which has seriously damaged the team's squad depth.
To make matters worse, Paul had a fractured right hand and another 8-10 weeks of recovery after surgery, which made the Warriors' rotation even more difficult. The only good news is that the remaining schedule is relatively low, with the data showing that the Warriors are ranked 22nd in the NBA for the rest of the schedule.
As for the Suns, they are also in a worrying state, losing by 27 points in the game against the Clippers, losing three of the last four games, and not being strong in the match. The data shows that the Suns have a clear advantage in the face of teams with a winning rate of less than 50% this season, with a record of 14 wins and 9 losses, but in the face of teams with a winning rate of more than 50%, the record is only 5 wins and 9 losses, and if only the top 10 teams in the West are counted, the Suns are even more stretched, with a 2-10 record that is eye-popping.
The reason for this is that the team configuration is extremely unreasonable, except for the Big Three (all of which have the highest salary contract), almost all of them are veterans and base salary players, and their combat effectiveness is extremely limited. At the same time, the Suns Big Three are also due to injuries, stopping and stopping, and there are only a few combined games, the data shows that so far this season, the Suns Big Three have played a total of 87 minutes together. More than that, the rest of the Suns' schedule is too tough, ranking second in the league.
In fact, the two teams, the Warriors and the Suns, do have their own problems in terms of roster configuration. Although they both have a good group of players, overall, their offensive and defensive efficiency is not at the top 10 level in the league. Specifically, the Suns are ranked 12th in offense and 17th in defense, while the Warriors are 13th in offense and 21st in defense. are obvious offensive and defensive weak teams, which in the game against strong teams, the weaknesses that cannot be prevented will be infinitely magnified!
I have to say that the Suns and Warriors have gone from being the favorites at the beginning of the season to being at the bottom of the Western Conference today. Especially considering that both teams are paying some of the league's best luxury taxes, it's disappointing. At the same time, there are a lot of new forces emerging in the Western Conference, and these teams are gradually emerging and starting to take the place of the Warriors and Suns, and the NBA is really about to change.