Chapter Eighty-Nine: Losing streak

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The war of words between Los Angeles and New York is out of control.

From the topic of the Lakers and Knicks, it finally came to the battle for the largest city in the United States.

But it's not interesting to fight to this point, the battle for the first big city has been going on for a long time, and it's no longer something that a basketball team can represent. The respective fans of both teams also left early and no longer participated.

On November 10, in Miami, USA, at 6 p.m. local time, the Los Angeles Lakers challenged the Miami Heat away.

The Lakers had a five-game road streak in early November, first against the Nets and Knicks in New York, then in Miami against the Heat, then in Orlando against the Magic, and finally in Dallas against the Mavericks before returning home.

What's worse is that after tonight's game against the Heat, they will fly to Orlando to face the Magic back-to-back. This is a big test of the physical strength of the Lakers.

The so-called back-to-back means that the team plays away from home for two consecutive days.

Because of the tight schedule in the NBA, back-to-back situations often occur.

What's more, it's not uncommon for a team to play away from home for three or more consecutive days, and if any team has this back-to-back situation, it can only mean that they are not taken care of by the league.

In the event of back-to-back situations, the head coach of the team will make special adjustments in terms of personnel.

If the strength is inferior in the first game, it will definitely surrender early, and let the main force save their strength and strive for victory in the next game.

In back-to-back games, it is difficult to achieve consecutive wins, and when people are sleepy, it is difficult to play no matter how strong they are. If it's not a life-and-death game, the head coach generally won't let the players fight too hard.

In the game against the Heat, Lakers head coach Byron Scott adjusted the players' playing time.

Neither Kobe nor Yi Feng played more than 30 minutes.

Kobe Bryant is playing health ball, and he will definitely not play too much. And Yi Feng fought too hard in the last game against the Knicks, and Scott didn't dare to let him play for too long regardless of whether he recovered well or not.

After all, the current Yi Feng is the treasure of the Lakers, and if he is injured by Scott, then he will be unforgivable.

And the main forces like Clarkson and Randle have more tasks to take on.

First, when they played too badly against the Knicks in the front desk, and second, Yi Feng's playing time was reduced, and his offensive tasks needed to be completed by them.

In the last game, Clarkson played 33 minutes, hitting only 3 of 12 shots and scoring 8 points. Randle also played 37 minutes and had only six points and seven rebounds, while Hibbert was better, with 10 points and eight rebounds.

They are in poor form, and they don't have enough shots, so the data is so poor. In the end, the Lakers were able to break 100 points in total, thanks to Yi Feng's violent play.

And in this game against the Heat, if the Lakers want to get out of their home stadium, they must have a good performance.

Before the game, Wade brought his son to greet Kobe.

Zaire Wade is the eldest son of Dwyane Wade, and now at the age of 14, he has made his mark in the basketball world. It is highly likely that he will enter the NBA in the future.

The pre-game tidbits showed the warm side of professional basketball. However, in the professional game, heroes are judged by victory or defeat, and there are winners and losers.

The two starters of this game:

Lakers starting lineup: Jordan Clarkson, Yi Feng, Kobe Bryant, Julius Randle, Roy Hibbert

Heat starting lineup: Goran Dragic, Dwyane Wade, Lore Deng, Chris Bosh, Hassan Whiteside

The Miami Heat have won 4 of their previous 7 games, and although the winning percentage is not high, they are also ranked among the top in the East. The day before yesterday, they were challenged by the Toronto Raptors at home, and they won the game by a large margin of 20 points.

Continuing to play at home tonight, they continued their good momentum from the start of the game.

The Heat got off to a good start at home, with Whiteside hitting all three shots and Lore Deng hitting three-pointers to give them a 6-15 lead.

The back-to-back away games have left the Lakers in poor shape and not playing well off to a good start.

Fortunately, the Lakers' offense improved after a timeout, and Clarkson took over the offensive banner and led the team to play a 6:1 counterattack wave to close the score. The two sides then scored a few points each, with Williams scoring five points off the bench as the Lakers trailed 25-29 at the end of the first quarter.

Kobe Bryant and Wade, the two old rivals, did not directly face each other, which made the audience feel sorry. And Yi Feng, the rookie champion, was opposite Wade in the second position, which made fans look forward to it.

In the first quarter of the game, Kobe Bryant played against Lore Deng and played decently, scoring 8 points and 2 assists.

And Yi Feng was a little embarrassed.

He has always been confident in his defense, but he has been repeatedly broken by opponents in two games. If he wasn't able to return the color on the offensive end, he would have been completely blown up.

Wade is plagued by injuries and has long been at his peak, and the former Flash does not have the glory of the past, which can only make people sigh that "the people have passed away".

It's a part of a player's growth. When I was young, I relied on my body to play, but as I got older, my athleticism declined, and I relied more on technique and experience.

Wade's super-speed may be gone, but his skill and experience have improved. Relying on these, Yi Feng can't prevent it.

Against Wade, Yi Feng has a clear height advantage, which is a very big advantage when defending Wade's shooting.

But when Wade was on offense, he chose to shoot far less than he broke through. Yi Feng's height became a disadvantage in the face of his breakthrough.

And Wade is strong and strong, and Yi Feng is not an opponent at this point.

When he broke through, although the speed of the electric flint was gone, he could easily catch up with the young man. But his strength can top most of the No. 2 positions, and the lethality of the breakthrough is still there.

And he's so experienced that young players can get fouls if they're not careful.

Although Yi Feng was careful, he still received a foul on Wade in the first quarter.

Wade scored 11 points in the first quarter and was the first contributor to the team's lead.

Compared to Wade's more ball-handling offense, Yi Feng is playing more without the ball today.

Kobe Bryant returned tonight, the team had one more point to hold the ball, and Yi Feng didn't need to hold the ball too much.

But Yi Feng didn't feel good tonight, and several shots were out of the basket. Maybe it was because I played too crazy in the last game, and I even felt overdrawn.

Yi Feng, who knew that he was not in good shape, took fewer shots and put more energy into the defensive end. Although the task of defending Wade is daunting, the tougher the challenge, the more interested he becomes.

More ability was injected on the defensive end, and Wade, who had old arms and legs, also spared himself extremely and did not reluctantly attack. He also gave the ball away.

In this way, the rest of the Heat is activated.

The first beneficiary was Bosh.

Bosh hasn't played satisfactorily with the Heat since he reached a five-year, $118 million max contract extension with the Heat last July. Many people say that the highest contract in the history of the Heat seems to be going down the drain.

Tonight, however, Bosh was in full swing.

Facing the young Randle, Bosh repeatedly broke through to make fouls and scored, and got 7 free throws in the first half alone!

Boshburn is an astonishing athletic interior lineman, skilled in breaking, and has a very high level of shooting, with good three-point ability. He fired from beyond the three-point line a number of times tonight, and it was quite rewarding.

If Bosh single-handedly broke the Lakers' interior line, then Whiteside guarded the Heat's interior line alone.

In the second quarter, Whiteside sent two big hats, so that Clarkson did not dare to break through for a while.

The Heat's inside line was in full swing, causing fans in the American Airlines Center arena to exclaim again and again. However, at the end of halftime, the Heat only led the Lakers by 50-51.

It turned out that the hot starting line was powerful, and the hot substitute was not to be outdone.

Nick Young's last game was a big hole, and after learning from the pain, this game finally came to an end.

He exploded at the start of the second quarter, hitting four three-pointers in a row, scoring 14 points alone, leading the bench to bite the score and play an offensive climax, leading the score to 6 points.

Ci Shiping, who replaced Kobe, also warmed up and contributed two three-pointers. The Lakers' lead extended to more than 10 points.

After that, the main force came on the court, and the Heat's inner two heroes worked together to fill in the hole dug by the substitute.

The two sides reached a stalemate in the third quarter.

At the beginning, the two sides each exchanged several attacks, Wade hit both free throws, and Lore Deng hit three points; On the Lakers' side, Yi Feng felt revived, with three points and two shots, and the two sides tied 56:56.

After that, Wade successfully made Yi Feng's defensive foul again, and while getting two free throw opportunities, he also let Yi Feng carry his third personal foul.

Yi Feng, who was about to return to color, was suddenly replaced by Scott.

Fortunately, Nick Young continued to be brave, and he also shot three points in the face of Wade!

Although the inside line has never been able to open the situation, the Lakers have relied on the magical play of the outside bench to fall behind in the score slightly, but they have always been in a stalemate with the Heat.

After the start of the final quarter, the two teams continued to see-saw, and the fourth quarter lasted for 4 minutes, and the difference between the two teams was always within 5 points.

After that, Bosh made another Randle defensive foul, hit both free throws, and Winslow made a layup, and the Heat's lead came to eight points.

At this time, the Lakers continued to play iron and fell into a scoring drought. Kobe Bryant and Yi Feng tried individual attack mode one after another, but they couldn't score any points. missed the long-range shot, missed the layup, and made a foul without success!

Bosh, in turn, continued to make a run of five straight points, bringing the Heat's lead to 15 points with 5:30 left in the fourth quarter.

Scott didn't make a last-ditch effort, replaced the main force, disarmed and surrendered.

In the end, the Heat held on to their home court, and the Lakers lost 92-103.

Not only did the Heat win, but the players' stats also looked good:

Bosh had 33 points and 11 rebounds, while Whiteside had 19 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks to keep the basket out. The Heat's inner two heroes are the guarantee of the team's winning.

Lore Deng played well, with 14 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, and Wade didn't score much, only 15 points, but had 7 assists against Yi Feng's defense.

The Lakers lost, and the stats of the main players were not good:

Bryant had 17 points and 4 assists, Clarkson had 7 points and 3 assists, Randle had 7 points and 7 rebounds, and Hibbert had 2 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists. Yi Feng also only scored 19 points, and his personal record of 20+ consecutive points was ended.

The substitution stats are good:

Nick Young had 17 points, Louis Williams had 12 points and four rebounds, and Tzu had nine points on 3-of-3 three-pointers.

After this game, the Miami Heat won two in a row, while the Los Angeles Lakers ushered in a two-game losing streak.

This is the Lakers' first losing streak since the start of the new season, and this losing streak also dropped them from the Western Conference leader to the fourth place in the West.