At noon on December 19, Beijing time, the Lakers lost 109-114 at home to the Knicks in the NBA regular season and suffered consecutive defeats. LeBron James managed to hit a triple-double but it didn't help, and the flag of the first mid-season championship raised at the game did not bring inspiration and luck to the Lakers players.
The Lakers have said they won't raise the midseason championship flag because they may have felt that the event was too expensive to be hyped up, but the club reneged on its promise and the Lakers Arena raised the flag high before the game to show off their latest accolades. This season, the NBA held its first mid-season tournament, and the Lakers won the championship with a winning record, James won the first mid-season tournament MVP, and was named to the All-Season Tournament team with Anthony Davis. In this game against the Knicks, many Lakers home fans arrived early in the morning to witness the historic moment when the championship flag of the first mid-season championship was raised. The Lakers have won 17 championships in league history, tied with the Celtics in the East, and now they can be named the all-time best team with their midseason title.
However, the Knicks did not give the Lakers face, and they played a good start in the first and second halves in the first and third quarters, respectively, with a single quarter net of around 10 points in both quarters, laying the foundation for the victory of the entire game. Among them, Brunson, Randle and Quickley, who came off the bench, all scored more than 20 points, and withstood the Lakers' counterattack in the final quarter of the deciding quarter, winning the game while adding to the Lakers' flag-raising day.
James defended Randle, who scored 27 points.
James finished with 25 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out 11 assists, and was decent except for a poor 3-pointer shot of just 2-of-8. This is the second triple-double of the season, and sadly, the team has lost both times. "Thick eyebrows" Davis played better, with 32 points and 14 rebounds to do his best. But the team's overall defense is still problematic, and the Lakers have 12 fewer rebounds than their opponents in the whole game, and the hardness of grabbing the ball is not good. In the last game, they lost to the Spurs, who are at the bottom of the West, and the opponent ended a long losing streak, when Davis did not play, and only the old Zhan led the team.
This time the "thick eyebrows" returned, Russell also returned, but the Lakers still lost, the team always couldn't find a particularly smooth and offensive and defensive feeling, this season the Lakers still have a long way to go, and James is about to be 39 years old, he must cherish the rest of his career, not just break the record in terms of personal data, if he can add collective glory to the club, in order to make his career more perfect.
After this game, the Lakers had a 15-11 record and dropped to eighth in the West.
Text: Beijing Youth Daily reporter Liu Ailin.
Edited by Wang Haozhou.