On January 31, Beijing time, the Lakers challenged the Eagles away, in this game, the Lakers Munch got 33 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists, Davis got 27 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, and Wei Shao got 20 points, 7 rebounds and 12 assists, 8 of 15 shots, and the shooting rate was not low. However, in such a situation, the Lakers still swallowed a loss, they lost to the Atlanta Hawks on the road, won only two games in the East six-game away, the division ranking slipped further, and they were getting farther and farther away from the goals set at the beginning of the season.
In the past, the Lakers always lost, and one can blame it on Westbrook's poor performance, but in this game, Westbrook shot far more than average, and also delivered 12 assists, this time he did not drop the chain. Previously, due to the limited help of role players to core players, the Lakers also lost many key games, and in this game, in addition to the big three, Munch also played quite well, getting the Lakers' team-high 33 points and 10 rebounds, once again incarnating into the team's thigh. In addition, Anthony Davis also has a good play, his inside line of the Eagles is also turbulent, the Lakers can be said to have not dropped the chain from the star to the role player in this game, but the final result of the game is still a loss. So what's the lakers' problem?
Some people have said that the Lakers bench still sits on the bench with an injured LeBron James who averaged 29.1 points per game, but is it really because of the absence of the core of the team that caused the Lakers to lose? If the Lakers are determined to win the championship, then missing a star, even when facing a team of average strength, they can still win, look at the Warriors, even when Curry is not on the court, they can win a lot of teams, why can't the Lakers do this?
The root cause is the Lakers' defense, this game Davis received his fourth foul early in the second half, which greatly reduced his power on the defensive end, and Westbrook defense has always been not online, many times in the game to shrink the basket, don't look at his data is very good, but in the game scene is extremely bad, and even made a fairly low-level mistake, directly to the hands of the opposing player. Munch played well in this game, with a base salary of 1.76 million playing at the level of a superstar, but he is a role player after all, and you can't let him lead the team to win like the core.
Even James' return will not change the Lakers' defensive problems, because the Lakers' overall lineup is still too short, there is almost no qualified size of the front, and the interior line has no one to rely on except Davis. When Davis got into foul trouble, the Lakers defense crept in.