It seems that the Lakers are getting very difficult to mess with

It's no surprise that the Lakers are playing the Pistons, but what really intrigues is their recent record. Looking at the last 6 games:

First, he won three consecutive away games, overturned the Celtics, Knicks and Hornets in a row, followed by two consecutive wins at home, and took the Pelicans and Pistons.

The opponents are strong and weak, and the Lakers have a good momentum. The only game that lost was that the home team couldn't withstand the Nuggets, and there was really nothing to be done by Tianke, and the daddy hit the child.

The question then arises, where has the Lakers improved in the last 6 games?

First of all, it stands to reason that these recent games have not all been after the trade deadline, but the Lakers seem to be quite stable and united, especially Russell. As we all know, in December, Russell was full of complaints and mood swings, and he chose to open up a little, I don't know which god poured him ecstasy soup, so that in January, Russell averaged 22.7 points and 6 assists per game, with a three-point shooting rate of 45.9%, and then in February, he averaged 22.2 points per game and a three-point shooting rate of 40.2%.

With Reaves, in the six games in February, Reeves averaged 20 points and 6.8 assists per game, and together with Russell, a short double 20 backcourt was formed. While Russell Reaves is as flawed as ever on the defensive side, basketball is essentially a numbers game. When the offensive firepower of your own double backcourt can completely cover the points sent by the defensive side, it itself shows that the two guys play a very positive role. In short, the Lakers have had a brief recent stint with two quasi-star-level backcourts, and that's the bare minimum stats to show that.

To add an extra mile, the most classic battle in the double backcourt is the defeat of the Celtics away from home. Before that game, I felt that the Lakers were hanging, and they just lost more and lost less. Unexpectedly, Reeves incarnated as a king and scored 32 points on 18 shots, and Russell had 16 points, 14 assists, 2 steals and only 1 loss although he was iron, which directly exploded the backcourt that Celtics was proud of. When Zhan Mei returns, won't he just take off on the spot?

The second is to greatly improve the defense, which is divided into several levels. First, in the past 6 games, the Lakers have averaged only 12 points per game, and the second in the league is slightly inferior to New York in the same period; He averaged 17.3 points per game in turnovers, the eighth-lowest in the league.

There are fewer mistakes in the mess, which can naturally avoid some unnecessary loss of points, and the Lakers' mistakes are quite explosive in terms of the whole season, and the bottom ten level of the league. Returning to the last six games, the Lakers averaged only 10 turnovers per game, the league's top spot in the same period.

The second is to protect the basket, whether it is the most intuitive block (second in the league in the same period), backcourt rebounding, and controlling the opponent's secondary scoring, all of which have improved by varying degrees compared to the season average. Not to mention anything else in today's battle against the Pistons, Guang Thick Mei alone sent out as many as 6 blocks, and even included one defense and three incarnations of Optimus Giant Pillars, and forced the Pistons to press down the famous painting-level performance.

Finally, there is manpower, and the manpower that the Lakers can use now is just right for Ham. In addition to the people in the rivers and lakes called cephalosporin, Hamm's other identity is the god of remnant blood, and the fewer people there are, the sharper his mind and his mind are bright. Or take that game against the Celtics as an example, Vanderbilt was only absent for 16 minutes and retired with an injury, what happened? Ham was stunned to play the seven-man rotation to the extreme, from Hachimura to Hayes, to Christie, all of them were played by him. From that perspective, Vanderbilt's absence from injury would have upset the Lakers, but in turn it would have made Ham feel comfortable. There is a way that Han Xin points troops, the more the merrier, and Hamm points troops, the fewer the better, which is quite a bit of the reverse of the Huaiyin Marquis.

It's just that there is another problem mixed in, when the wounded and sick return one after another, what will happen?

There may still be some elements of blowing penalty scales in it, and this issue is actually quite sensitive, but realistically speaking, the Lakers can indeed gain some advantages. Over the past six games, the Lakers have averaged 26 free throws per game, second in the league over the same period, compared to 13.8 free throws per game for their opponents, first in the league over the same period.

Honestly, big-market teams do deserve some care, and that's the league's default unspoken rule. The big market provides the league with financial resources, box office, luxury tax revenue, and enough attention and exposure to be understandably favored. By the way, judging from the Lakers' recent momentum, there may be a real possibility of hitting the top six, which is exactly what Wood said:

"We're trying to make the playoffs and even though we're ninth in the West, I think we're a team that can break into the top six and we can avoid the play-offs altogether, so we need to keep working hard and be consistent. ”

To be reasonable, it's in the interest of most teams, and indeed the entire league, that the Lakers to get on the through train. For the difficult brothers and sisters who are in the same play-off zone, the Lakers are undoubtedly a ghostly existence, and it is true that the series may not be able to beat those T0-level teams, but if it is changed to a single game, who in the league except for the elders of the rest of the teams dares to pat their chests to guarantee that they can level the Lakers?

For the league, for the Lakers to be able to catch the through train, it means that the first-round box office and ratings will be guaranteed. After all, no team can guarantee that it can eat the Lakers, but there is still randomness in a single game, what if there is a real accident?

For the few strong people in the head, if the Lakers can rush up, the operation space will be large, especially the strong ones in the head who love to play chess. The competition in the West has been particularly fierce this year, and the top teams can consume as little as possible, so the simple and straightforward question is: Would you prefer to meet the Lakers in the first round, or the Pelicans or Kings?

The only one who may be injured is the fifth or sixth in the west at the moment, which one will the organization designate to become the unlucky person to be sacrificed?