lakers championship

Chapter 391 Try Trading?

Once the content of Wharton's interview was announced, the fans immediately talked about it.

"A team with a star suspension may gain even more profit from it, and only a team like the Lakers with many potential rookies can do it. It's really a strange flower in the NBA."

"Believe me, Ingram and Kuzma are absolutely explosive. According to my calculations, they will take 28-35 more shots in these seven games, and the average score will definitely skyrocket!"

"Compared to several rookies, I hope Kobe will explode. Everyone has seen his state. As long as he is willing, it will not be a problem to win the player of the week. If he works harder, he may still compete for the best player. Sixth."

...

On the 26th, the Lakers played against the Pacers at home. Tianyang could not play and chose to watch the game in the locker room.

Wharton arranged for Kobe to start, supporting Rondo, Ingram, Randall, and Lopez.

In the first quarter of the game, the Pacers used the pick-and-roll of Oladipo and Sabonis to continuously break through the Lakers' defense and score, forcing Walton to replace McGee.But after McGee played, the Pacers turned to the inside, relying on the small-scale cooperation of Bojan and Thaddeus to bully McGee for poor frame protection, and the Lakers had no temper at all.

After the first quarter, the Lakers trailed by 9 points. In the second quarter, Walton simply replaced Rose and Hart, greatly speeding up the offense and defense. Although he didn't score too many points, he managed to reduce the Pacers overall. hit rate.

In the third quarter of the game, Kobe returned to the court and succeeded in consecutive backs against Oladipo, helping the Lakers tie the score.Then the two teams entered a tug of war, both sides strictly guarded the outside line, Kobe and Oladipo hit the iron one after another, and ended in a 78-78 draw.

Entering the fourth quarter, Hart played first, took advantage of Oladipo's rest, and faced Cory Joseph, who had a poor defense and a terrible touch, made consecutive breakthrough shots on offense and restricted Lance Stephenson on defense. Help the Lakers establish a 6-point lead.When the Pacers reacted and replaced Oladipo in advance, the Lakers also replaced Kobe.

In the end, the Lakers narrowly beat the Pacers 98-92. Kobe made 26 of 11 shots, 2 of 2 free throws, and scored 25 points, 4 assists and 5 rebounds.

In an interview with reporters after the game, Kobe said with a smile that he has returned to the top.

...

After defeating the Pacers, the Lakers started a 5-game away trip, and the first game was the Raptors.

Although the journey was far away and he was unable to play, Tianyang still followed the team. Following Wharton's proposal, he focused on analyzing the team's weaknesses and tried to provide more suggestions.

As a result, in the battle with the Raptors, the Lakers' weaknesses exploded.

Since Tianyang was absent and Kobe was off the field, Hart couldn't defend at all. In addition, DeRozan had a good touch. The Lakers trailed by 20 points at halftime.

After the start of the second half of the game, the Lakers turned to the main defensive perimeter. Randall and Ingram made a lot of early delays, but this reduced the attention to Ibaka and Siakam, which caused the two to overwhelm the interior. McGee scored consecutive defensive fouls and also played.

As a result, even though Tatum broke out from the second half of the third quarter to the first half of the fourth quarter and scored 16 points efficiently, he still failed to tie the score. In the end, the Lakers lost 91 to 102 to the Raptors.

The winning streak was ended, and the Lakers team was a little depressed, but the good news is that Kobe continued to maintain a good state. He made 14 of 7 shots, had two three-pointers and four free throws, and scored 20 points and three assists.

In the press conference after the game, Raptors coach Casey said excitedly that letting the Lakers get into a tangle between the inside and outside may be the best way to beat the Lakers.

ESPN analyst Joe Gruden wrote on Twitter: "The Raptors provide a new idea for the Celtics, 76ers, Warriors, Rockets, and Thunder teams that can wrestle with the Lakers. Totally worth trying."

That's certainly the case, and the loss to the Raptors was the Lakers' third loss of the season.

The main reason for losing to the Cavaliers for the first time was that back-to-back away games were too tiring, and LeBron played bravely again.The second time they lost to the Rockets, the main reason was that Harden, Paul, and Gordon felt explosive, and they shot the Lakers to death.

There is no way to learn these two ways of winning, but the Raptors can copy them.

Interestingly, in the game on the 31st, the Magic first tried this idea.

At the beginning of the game, Fournier took the ball to the front court, quickly directed the team to disperse, and then passed the ball to the inside, allowing Vucevic to single Lopez.Perhaps it was the excitement of challenging a strong team. Vucevic was in full swing, with back hits, mid-range shots, and strong bursts.

In desperation, Walton could only arrange for Randall and Ingram to assist in the defense, but Vucevic did not force it. As long as there was assistance and double-teaming, he immediately distributed the ball to Speights and Jonathan Simmons .

These two were on a bad team, and they didn't have the pressure to win the game carefully. When they received a pass, they grabbed a three-pointer without any hesitation.

Fortunately, the Magic's defense is bad enough. Kobe playing Payton is like a college student hitting a middle school student, Randall Tuspeits is like crossing the road, and Ingram can get rid of Jonathan Simmons' defense by running back at will. The Lakers have never fallen behind too much.

In the fourth quarter, the players' physical strength declined, and the magic team's three-point shooting percentage also dropped. Kobe led Ingram to steal first, then block the shot, and then double-team to force mistakes. He successfully played a wave of 8-0.

In the end, the Lakers defeated the Magic 112 to 102, and Kobe scored 22 points and 6 rebounds.

Although they won, the entire Lakers team was not happy, and the shortcomings were too obvious, and they couldn't change it for a while.

Tianyang told everyone not to worry, there are still 2 months before the playoffs, and they can slowly find a way.

...

On February 2, the Lakers went to the Barclays Center to challenge the Nets in the last game of their 2-game streak in the Eastern Conference.

In the battle against the former owner, the Lakers team intends to play for Daluo and let him and Jarrett Allen face off.

It was hard to tell the difference between the two, but on the Lakers side, Randall and Ingram stood up and made sudden shots, helping the Lakers lead the Nets by 15 points at halftime. Seeing this situation, Walton simply sent the team's No. Three lineups.

The defense of the third team of the Lakers was not systematic, which caused Dinwiddie to score points one after another, but Hart and Nick Young also responded.

In the end, the Lakers beat the Nets 112-99.

On the 3rd, the Lakers team returned to Los Angeles and finally got two good news.

Although Tianyang didn't play 1 games at the end of January, it still relied on its amazing record of 3+ points and 10 points in 40 consecutive games, even Zhuangxi's best player of the month, and went one step further on the road to MVP.

In addition, Kobe was successfully elected as the Western Conference Player of the Week for his outstanding performance against the Celtics, Pacers, Raptors, and Magic.

Lakers fans are very happy to see the two Lakers players achieve results, even small ones.

But this happiness didn't last long.

On the 4th, the away game challenged the Thunder. The Thunder copied the Raptors' thinking and let Westbrook and George stare at Rondo through the pick-and-roll.

After Ron was injured, his explosive power dropped severely. Although he could use his wingspan and awareness to deal with point guards like Lillard, he couldn't defend against comprehensive masters like Westbrook and George, causing the Lakers to fall behind by as much as 14 points at halftime.

Wharton tried various methods, but was still unable to solve this problem, so he could only start playing against each other in the second half.

Kobe and Tatum stood up and scored consecutively, but they dug too much in the half, and finally lost 104 to 108 regrettably.

On the 6th at home against the Suns, Cousins ​​broke out in full swing, and Booker and other players also cooperated exceptionally. He was omnipotent with three-pointers, breakthrough throws, and face-up shots. He scored 43 points in three quarters and helped the Suns win the game.

Regrettably, Cousins ​​was injured at the end of the fourth quarter, and news of the season's reimbursement came out after the game.

On the 8th, they played against the Thunder again at home. In the same way, they lost again.

The Lakers have suffered a three-game losing streak, more than they have lost in the past three months, and the total number of losses has reached 6 games. There is little hope of breaking the Warriors' record of 73 wins, and the team's shortcomings have been exposed. Many experts suggest that the Lakers should try trade.

(End of this chapter)