On January 20th, Beijing time, the Clippers hosted the Lakers. As the fourth and fifth teams in the West, this season was still the first confrontation between the Clippers and the Lakers, but the game process was one-sided.
In this game, the Clippers completely gave the Lakers a lesson, showing what it means to be a mature team. In this game, the Clippers played with all their players, and during the game, they showed good team cooperation, orderly offense, strong finishing ability; defensively, strict discipline, solid defense line, making the Lakers suffer.
In this game, four people from the Clippers scored double digits, Leonard made 9 of 13 shots very efficiently for 19 points; Zubac shot 16 times and hit 9 teams, scoring 21 points and 19 rebounds; Harden scored 21 points and also sent out 12 assists; Powell contributed 22 points.
On the Lakers side, they were crushed by the Clippers throughout the game. James scored 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 11 assists with a plus-minus value of -3, which was the best performance among the Lakers. Davis was weak, shooting 5 of 14 for only 16 points and 10 rebounds; Hachimura scored 19 points and 7 rebounds on the offensive end, but had no impact on the defensive end. Rivers only shot 6 times, hitting 4 shots for 14 points.
In this game, the Lakers were forced into 15 turnovers by the Clippers, who contributed 12 steals and completely suppressed the Lakers inside and outside. Especially Zubac, who was wreaking havoc in the Lakers' paint, with low-post singles, back-to-the-basket hook shots, pick-and-rolls, and second-chance offense, completely shattered the Lakers' interior. Even when matched up against Davis, Zubac didn't fall behind, grabbing 8 offensive rebounds and forcing Davis to shoot, giving him physical contact, and Davis was completely conquered by Zubac.
Speaking of Zubac, Davis said, "He has been practicing his low-post skills, hook shots. He has always been a great screener and lob threat, and is also good at grabbing offensive rebounds and protecting the rim. His low-post offensive skills have improved now, and when they pass the ball to him, he will use his right hand to finish the hook shot. He has added this skill to his arsenal."
Zubac was selected by the Lakers in 2016 and traded to the Clippers by the Lakers in 2019 in exchange for Muscala. Muscala only served the Lakers for half a year before being traded again and has since retired. Due to his potential, Zubac was just traded to the Clippers, and the Clippers immediately gave him a 4-year, $28 million contract. That season, Zubac averaged 15 points, 12.7 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.2 blocks per game. This also reflects that the Lakers' management has narrow vision and commercial operations are in a mess.
From today's game, it is simply impossible for the Lakers to win a championship, and they can only win if they have a perfect performance. As a superstar, James has seen this very clearly, and after the game, he hinted at this issue more subtly, I wonder if the Lakers' management can understand his hints.
When talking about this loss, James said, "We must play near-perfect basketball, we have no choice, this is determined by our lineup structure."
The Lakers must play perfectly to win in the current NBA because this is determined by their lineup. The meaning of James' words is to imply that there is a problem with the team's lineup structure, the role players' abilities are limited, and they are not suitable for James and Davis' playing styles. Now, if the Lakers want to win, they must either perform at a dominant level like James and Davis, or have a hot hand like Rivers, as was the case in the last game against the Nets.
The current Lakers team indeed has many problems. First of all, James is already 40 years old, and his physical strength cannot support him to play the whole game, and he cannot fully meet the requirements on both offense and defense. In addition, Davis dislikes confrontation and especially dislikes facing big centers, which he is very resistant to. In such matchups, he always fails to perform well. Moreover, Rivers is too physically disadvantaged and easily targeted on defense. Vincent is too short, Hachimura's footwork is not good, Christie's offense is unstable, Finney-Smith is height-limited and offensively inconsistent, Hayes only has bounce, defense is not good, and offense relies on eating cakes.
Comprehensively speaking, this Lakers team has extremely unstable offense and shooting levels below the league average. On defense, either the body is at a disadvantage or the feet cannot keep up with the attacking team. With problems on both ends of the attack and defense, how can the Lakers win? Just as James said, only perfect performance, there is no other choice. Another layer of meaning is to hope that the team management will act quickly and continue trading because the players cannot have perfect performances every night.