On January 10, Beijing time, the Lakers' battle for the Raptors came to an end, and in the face of the Raptors, who had just defeated the Warriors, James ushered in a sudden force in the second half and led the team to defeat the opponent.
However, the most commendable thing about the Lakers in this game is not Zhan Huang, but another player, who has performed perfectly since his comeback, and completely destroyed Reaves' Russell, he and Wood are actually the most critical bench players for the Lakers team now. Russell's performance at the beginning of the season was originally very good, once scoring double-doubles in 14 consecutive games, and repeatedly slashing more than 25+5 data, and playing the Pistons once cut 35 points and 9 assists in a single game, which is very strong.
But since he got into the trade turmoil, he was first kicked out of the starting lineup by the team, and then he simply had an injury and missed many games with the Lakers, but in fact, whether there is Russell or not is really important to the Lakers. Although Russell didn't play well before, but when he was there, you could find out that he was the only one next to James who could stabilize the ball and organize the whole team.
Russell took a break for 8 days before that, and the Clippers chose to shoot 13 points and 6 assists on 5-of-14 shooting in the first game.
And in this game against the Raptors, the defensive intensity on the opposite side was very high, and then Russell broke out again, playing as a substitute player in 16 minutes, he hit 4 of 8 and scored 11 points and 5 assists. 16 minutes 11+5, if he is given 30 minutes of playing time, this may be another 20+10 performance, and under his leadership, the Lakers' bench lineup efficiency is also very beautiful, all 4 bench players have positive plus/minus, but the Lakers' starters are losing points when they play, and the substitutes are winning points. It can only be said that Russell's amazing performance made him one of the biggest surprises for the Lakers.
Another one who played well was Wood. In the last game against the Clippers, Wood also slashed 9 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocks with high efficiency, and he and Russell combined for 22 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists on 4-of-6 shooting. And the Lakers only have two substitute double-double players in this game are Russell and Wood, Wood hit 5 of 10 and hit 14 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal and 1 block again, and teamed up with Russell to cut 25 + 5 + 6 data, and the scores of two people in two consecutive games are stable contributions, and they are basically able to play doubles. The presence of these two people has won James enough time to rest.
Like when there were 5 and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter of this game, when the two sides were tied at 105, Lakers coach bald Ham actually dared to replace James, just because these two people played well enough, and they didn't have to let Zhan Huang play the whole quarter. If it weren't for the fact that the bench lineup did buy enough rest time for the eldest brother, the coach would definitely not dare to make this adjustment casually.
It can only be said that if the Lakers make a trade in the middle of the season, then they must not sell Russell and Wood, these two are actually the kind of players that the team earns blood compared to their own salaries, Russell's two-year contract of 37 million is really not expensive, and Wood only needs a base salary. If they continue to play like this, then what the Lakers sold in the middle of the season may be 58 million for 4 years, but it is getting worse and worse, and Reaves has been 3 of 22 in the last 5 three-point shots.
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