James' 39th birthday was spent on an airplane. After the defeat in Minnesota, the Lakers rushed to the next away game, New Orleans, where they checked into their hotel at 3:20 a.m. local time. This means that as soon as the Lakers open their eyes, they will have to play away again.
I think the Lakers must not understand the truth of Tian Ji horse racing, this season back-to-back, the Lakers have played back and forth with strong teams in the first game many times, and finally lost. Then in the second game against a team that was not that strong, the Lakers were defeated because of physical exhaustion.
From the Lakers' point of view, it's actually understandable, the Lakers feel that they can wrestle with any team and want to fight against anyone. Yesterday they did get close to the Timberwolves, but today against the Pelicans, the Lakers lost without temper.
From the beginning of the game, the Lakers showed fatigue, scoring 33 points in the first quarter, but conceding 42 points. It's understandable that they're not physically fit in back-to-backs, and it's understandable that the team's recent injury spree, but that's no reason for the Lakers' poor defensive strategy in the first quarter.
CJ was 5-of-7 from three-point range in the first quarter, and one of the three open spots was against Hachimura and one against Wood, and he basically missed the guard during the period. Because the Lakers' starting line is a five-guard lineup, James' thick eyebrows, Prince Hachimura and Van der Biao.
The height of this lineup is up, but the mobility will inevitably decrease, and it is easy to be run out of the vacancy by an off-ball master like CJ. The Lakers later used joint defense, and then the Pelicans seemed to score five three-pointers in a row, and the outside defense was completely blown out.
The Lakers can't help it, Russell and Reddish are both injured, and Vincent has surgery early and is estimated to lie down before and after the All-Star. Xiaoli needs to fill the firepower of the bench, so he can't be mentioned in the starting lineup.
Last season, the Lakers played the starting lineup in the Western Conference finals, with Russell and Reaves partnering in the backcourt, and Vanderbilt and James three in the frontcourt. This season has basically not appeared, mainly because the Lakers have lost the point of Xiao Hei, and the replacement Vincent is a sick number, so Xiao Li can only be on the bench.
The Lakers scored only 24 points in the second quarter, including James scoring 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting, while scoring 5 points with 2 assists, and the remaining 2-point free throw points from James' passing.
Throughout the second quarter, the Lakers gave the impression that there was only James, and they could only rely on James. The last time the Lakers and Pelicans met in the midseason tournament, James also made all kinds of big kills in a single quarter, but this time James was in a state of being alone.
The Lakers lost the Pelicans by 20 points in the game, and if it weren't for James' efforts in the second quarter, the game might have been spent at halftime. James finished with 34 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists on 12-of-24 shooting, while also committing four turnovers.
If memory serves, all four of these mistakes came from direct steals from the opponent, and the sixth Alvarado took three. I wonder why no one is reminded out loud that James has a six, once or twice is understandable, three times?It can only be understood that the spirit of the entire Lakers team cannot be concentrated.
Thick eyebrows' state today is actually okay, 7 of 15 shots, 20 + 10 + 5 blocks. But what frustrates Thick Eyebrows is that whenever he struggles to block his opponent, the opportunity for a second offense will always be taken by the Pelicans, and no matter how powerful Thick Eyebrows are, it is impossible to cover every opponent.
After receiving the prize money in the midseason tournament, the Lakers have clearly taken the state of the game down a notch. In the last 11 games, the Lakers have 3 wins and 8 losses, of which 2 wins still come from the Spurs and Huang Feng, and the remaining win against the Thunder is the 40 points scored by James.
What's wrong with the Lakers?Van der Biao's return did not bring more positive effects to the Lakers, but instead dragged his feet on the offensive end, and he only scored one three-pointer in 13 games, shooting 71%, and the only way to score on the offensive end is basically an empty basket.
Hachimura was injured again today, and this season Hachimura struggled with Hamm's rotation and brought the attributes of glass. The Lakers' three-pointers, while a little better than the league's bottom at the start of the season, are still at the bottom of the league.
Russell and Reaves' ups and downs have been largely influenced by trade rumors. James' team will never lack this, ** needs to suck traffic around James, James is invulnerable to this, and his teammates are different.
Last season, the Lakers' power before and after the trade deadline also changed significantly, largely because the role players did not have the "will not be traded" gains and losses, all the strength was used in one place, and there were no other miscellaneous thoughts.
Almost every season the Lakers have this kind of role player affected by trade rumors, which is what is inevitable when they play in Los Angeles and play next to James.
Will the Lakers make a trade this season?I think it will. You can't hope that James will be in this form next season, and you can't put your hopes on Vincent's knees. The Lakers' state should be racing against time, not just "staying up with the old man" like today.
It's hard for the Lakers to make a great trade that directly changed the structure of the team like last season, but some minor fixes are still necessary. The good news is that the Lakers' current win rate is at least 50%, and looking at the Warriors below them can at least have some psychological comfort.
The bad news is that the rest of the Lakers can change, but the fact that Ham is their head coach is hard to change anytime soon. The first year of Ham's chicken soup coach was their honeymoon period, and when the players in the back were immune to his chicken soup, his shortcomings were revealed.
The amount of water a barrel can hold does not depend on the longest plank, but on the shortest plank.