The NBA's sixth round of the regular season continued to be contested, with the Los Angeles Lakers at home to challenge the Cleveland Cavaliers. For James and Anthony, two veterans who have been on the NBA stadium for many years, today is also the 18th year of their official debut, 18 years ago today, James and Anthony also made their career debuts, and at that time, the son of choice, James, was still wearing the Cavaliers jersey. Eighteen years later, James has become the leader of the Lakers, and the opponent he faces on this important day is his old club, the Cleveland Cavaliers. In the end, thanks to the excellent performances of James and Anthony, the Lakers defeated the Cavaliers 113-101 at home.
Since the beginning of the game, the Cavaliers have maintained a very good competitive state, and their tandem Mobley has gradually shown his talent, in this game, Mobley has 23 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals of the full data, and the 23-point single-game score is also a new career high for Mobley. In the first three quarters of the game, the Cavaliers once caused great trouble to the Lakers, until the last moment of the fourth quarter, the Lakers gradually opened the score gap.
However, in this game, Westbrook's overall performance, which has been questioned before, has picked up, in the 34-minute playing time, Westbrook hit 8 goals in 13 shots, got 19 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists, compared to some previous games, Westbrook's handling of the ball is also much more reasonable, but in the third quarter of the game, Westbrook also completed a gorgeous counterattack with James, which directly ignited the atmosphere of the entire Staples Arena. For Wei Shao, he still needs a period of time to gradually change his playing style and avoid some low-level mistakes.
After the departure of Pope and Caruso, two defensive defenders, the Lakers' defensive ability in the backcourt showed a cliff-like downward trend, and in recent times, two players, Nunn and Tucker, have also failed to play due to injuries, so Vogel is a bit constrained in the rotation of the defense. However, in this game, Bradley and Reeves, who had not been favored by everyone before, stood up, and their positive attitude on the defensive end once helped the Lakers gradually erase the disadvantage.
In the whole game, although Bradley only got 7 points and 3 rebounds, his plus-minus was as high as +30, the highest in the game. After being ruthlessly abandoned by the Golden State Warriors, the Lakers chose to claim Bradley, and in this way, Bradley once again put on the purple and gold army's battle robe. But in previous games, Lakers coach Vogel didn't seem willing to give Bradley too much playing time. However, after the end of the game, Vogel praised the defensive player in the backcourt in an interview with the media, saying: "Avery Bradley is on the field, and I think his defensive intensity is infectious. ”
Another youngster in the backcourt, Reeves, also played very well in this game, especially on the defensive end, and we seem to see a shadow of Caruso in Reeves. As a lost draft player, Reeves has the title of "Village Mamba", but the lost draft with a two-way contract has seized the opportunity given to him by the Lakers and has gradually become a member of the Lakers' rotation lineup. It is very ironic that whether it is Bradley or Reeves, they are not the key targets of the Lakers in the offseason, that is, these two players who were once not favored by everyone, but have become the Lakers' "strange soldiers" on the defensive end.