Before the start of the season, when interpreting the prospects of the new season, various US media listed the Nets, Bucks, Lakers, Suns, and Clippers in the championship group. However, on October 28, Beijing time, five teams lost on the same day, and today can be called "Good Friday for Strong Teams".
The problem is that in the first week of the season, the performance of these five top teams in the championship group has not met expectations, except for the Bucks, the other four teams have a winning rate of less than 50%, and the strong dialogue loses, and the game that should be won also dares to lose. Nowadays, the strong teams have their own troubles.
New season run-in
Among the strong teams, the biggest change in the lineup is undoubtedly the Lakers, and the Lakers are also the team most affected by the "new season run-in disease".
In order to introduce Russell Westbrook, the Lakers sacrificed three main rotation players of Pop, Kuzma and Harrell, and other players like Mark Gasol, Wesley Matthews, Markieff Morris, etc., the Lakers did not choose to stay. The Lakers now have only LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Taren Horton Tucker on the roster last season.
Although the Lakers signed back Dwight Howard, Lajan Rondo, Avery Bradley, such veterans, trying to shorten the run-in time as much as possible, because Westbrook is used to holding the ball in his hand, his playing style is incompatible with James and Rondo, and the Lakers' run-in problem is very obvious. In the course of the experiment, coach Frank Vogel used some obviously meaningless rotations, such as Westbrook and Rondo were on the floor at the same time, and many times Anthony was still on the floor with them, and when the Lakers sacrificed these combinations, there were problems with the distribution of offensive balls and defensive loopholes.
Including the use of DeAndre Jordan to play the starting center, Vogel's experiment at the beginning of the season was not a success, and Jordan Jr.'s defensive performance could not satisfy the Lakers, which directly affected the Lakers' basketball defense this season.
On the run-in issue, many of Vogel's adjustments are actually passive adjustments, while Nets coach Steve Nash is not the same, he is often active experimentation. For example, the abandonment of Bruce Brown at the beginning of the season and the push of Clarkston into the starting center position are not suitable for the Nets, which are mainly small balls. After Brown returned to the starting lineup, the Nets' offensive space and fluency of the starting Five Tigers have improved significantly.
However, there are still many problems with the Nets rotation time, patty Mills, Jevon Carter, Millsap, James Johnson joined, the Nets' second team has changed a lot, and the Nets are still looking for the most reasonable rotation order.
Star absence
The top five teams have been poorly matched since the start of the game, with the Nets trapped by Kyrie Irving's personal reasons and the Lakers, Bucks, Clippers and Suns plagued by injuries.
Irving's situation is no stranger to everyone, because Irving refused to be vaccinated, can not play the home game, the Nets made a decision, until Irving is vaccinated, he will not train with the team, play. Irving's absence gave the Nets one less weapon to attack, and Nash could only adjust the lineup and tactical play to cope with Irving's inability to play. Although the Nets' lineup is still not short of stars and depth, don't forget that the Nets have a lot of tactics around Irving this season, and now that Irving is not playing, it is very difficult for the Nets to fill its vacancies.
The other four teams are completely due to injuries, the Lakers lost four players before the regular season began, Ariza, Nunn, Ellington, and Tucker Jr. have not played so far because of injuries. In the previous game against the Grizzlies, James injured his ankle again. Playing the Spurs, Davis injured his knee. In the last two games, James has not played, Vogel was forced to use Rondo and Bradley, and the change in the rotation has affected the Lakers' play.
The Bucks are not much better off than the Lakers, with the regular season opener with Four rotation players, Portis, Hood, Di Vincenzo and Ojele, who did not play, and Juo Holliday withdrew due to injury. After that, Brooke Lopez was also injured, and the Bucks' lineup was seriously uneven, which was the main reason for their previous defeat to the Heat and today's loss to the Timberwolves.
On the Clippers side, Kawhi Leonard is still recuperating from injury, and whether he can make a comeback this season is still unknown. Ibaka hasn't played so far due to injuries last season, and Marcus Morris hasn't been able to play lately. That's to say, the Clippers are missing 3 starters.
The Suns were slightly better, but the injury of the substitute point guard Payne damaged the strength of the Suns rotation lineup, and third point guard Elfred Payton was inferior to Payne in both outside shooting and organization.
Core dud
The typical core dud is Harden, who played 5 games and scored only 16.6 points on the field, shooting only 35.9% from the field and only 33.3% from three-point range. With three minutes less playing than last season, his average turnover per game has increased to as many as 4.6. When Harden was on the floor, the Nets averaged 8.4 points per game.
Harden's state is not good, first, because of the adjustment of the blow penalty scale, the league introduced new rules to restrict unnatural shooting to create fouls, harden was suppressed by the new rules. Regardless of whether the referee is overcorrected, it is a reality that Hash has only 3 free throws left on the field, and his average free throw score per game is 3.5 points less than last season. Another reason is that Harden has been recuperating from hamstring injuries in the offseason, there are not many ball training, and he still needs time to find the form.
The Nets can't count on Irving right now, and all they can hope for is Harden to come up with better form. Harden does not exert attack power, relying on Durant himself, exhausted Durant Nets will not win the high rate.
Plagued by core duds, the Suns averaged 42 points last season, but this season the Suns have averaged just 33.5 points per game. Don't look at Booker today's pick-up status to take 31 points, the previous 3 games his output is far from normal level, it seems that he has not yet escaped the impact of the previous infection with the new crown virus. As for Paul, he has scored a total of 10 points in the last two games, can he still attack? This is unknown.
Contract syndrome
Before the start of the season, Talks for an early contract extension of DeAndre Ayton failed. In public, Ayton's rhetoric remains professional, saying he just wants to focus on playing and helping the team win. But The Suns general manager James Jones publicly stated for two consecutive days that he would not give Ayton a 5-year maximum salary contract, and stabbed Ayton in his heart, and Ayton's heart was inevitably unhappy.
Since the beginning of the game, Ayton's data and playing style have changed significantly, his proportion of participation in blocking and demolition has decreased, and his average score per game and efficiency have declined. As if to prove himself, Ayton's singles near the box and three-point shots from the outside increased.
In the playoffs last season, Ayton's success was in finding his own position, and he provided the Suns with a blue-collar play. But after the failure of this early contract extension, Ayton realized that the blue-collar style of play could not get him a satisfactory contract, and now he is somewhat lost.
epilogue
Of course, the season has just begun, these strong teams that did not meet expectations at the beginning of the season still have a lot of room for adjustment, with the chemical reaction, tacit understanding, the return of the injured, the stars to find the state, the record of these strong teams will improve, a temporary downturn does not need to worry too much.