Chapter 525: Victory in December

The Lakers, who have won 17 in a row, have not stopped their pace, and in the back-to-back games that followed, they welcomed another team in the midst of a rebuild, the Magic, who extended the rebuild to their fourth season last season, with 35 wins up 10 games from 2014-15 and the most since 2011-12 (37 wins) reached the playoffs. The Magic rank 17th with 104.6 points per 100 possessions, and the league's defensive rebounding percentage (76.5 percent, 12th) and turnovers in control (12.8, 14th) are also in the league.

But the poor distribution and inefficiency of the offense became a shackle for the Magic. Points per 100 possessions (102.6 points, tied for 21st), three-point attempts (22.2, 22nd), free throw attempts (20.1, second-to-last), and offensive rebounds (23.1, tied for 21st) are all outside the top 20, rendering the Magic's joint 13th-fastest pace and fourth-highest average shots per game (86.8) useless. However, with an excellent two-point shooting performance and a decent three-point shooting percentage (35%, 15th), the Magic still surrendered 50%, ranking 16th in true shooting percentage.

The addition of Biyombo made the magic, which had been worried about the starting No. 4 position in the past, suddenly have a ridiculous inside reserve in the East District. In response to Vucevic's lack of interior defense, the Magic can be said to have taken a strong medicine, and there are two unresolved questions, one is whether Russell, a boy with a low IQ, who was exchanged for the young Oladipo, can play his due strength; The second is whether Biyombo is short-lived and whether he is fit to start. Vogel's interior rotation will be a test of his first fire, which went to Vucevic, who had a lot of complaints about the summer operation, saying that he would be given the right to fire from the outside when he took the No. 4 position.

As for the other reinforcements of the Magic, the industry has different opinions, some people believe that the arrival of Green and Augustin will squeeze out the growth space of young players; Some people complained that while the Magic were consolidating the interior line, they were a little "careless of the tail", and the problem of insufficient shooting firepower in the backcourt has not been improved; But there are also those who believe that the Magic have made up the bench this offseason, and the young team with plenty of troops has always been scary.

In fact, this is also the first time Ye Xuan has seen his mentor this season - Frank Vogel, after being fired by the Pacers, the Magic team quickly chose to sign with him, after all, he was the one who single-handedly brought the rebuilding Pacers team to the championship step by step.

After taking over the Magic, Vogel happily said that he "has never coached such a versatile team", which points to the biggest advantage of the Magic, but also highlights the lack of leaders in the Magic. As the boss of the locker room, Vucevic will reach the peak of his career, but who is in charge on the field? Is it Elfried Payton, whose shooting is inconsistent and even Vogel has bluntly said "don't shoot, don't shoot" (he also recently missed training camp due to a hip injury)? Is it Russell, whose tactical position is in danger of being marginalized? Is it Fournier, who could be given the last shot by Vogel? Or will Gordon be the starting three for the first time?

Some have joked that Vogel is the Magic's biggest addition this summer, and that's true considering the chaos of the Magic's loss of coach under Scott Skels last season. The abundant military resources will enable Vogel to switch between the "Big Five" and the "Five Small" freely, and training young people is his strength. Judging from the lineup configuration alone, there are teams with the most improvement next season in the offseason, just look at the saying "West Wolves and East Devils". Historically, young teams like the Magic have been full of momentum, but they may have to wait another year for their dream of making the playoffs a reality.

So this game is more like an opportunity to meet the teacher for Ye Xuan, after Ye Xuan came on the field, regardless of everyone's eyes, he walked directly to the bench of the away team, and then gave Frank Vogel a deep hug, and then officially started the competition of this game. In fact, there is nothing to say, after Russell was taught a lesson by Ye Xuan in the last encounter, he is now much more honest, and under Vogel, he really doesn't dare to jump too much, after all, he is also a champion coach. In addition, although Russell is not the number one player in the team's tactics, it is also a very important part, so he will not have too many complaints.

First, the cooperation between the two teams is not on the same level, and secondly, the difference in combat effectiveness between the two teams is also very good, so although the Lakers are back-to-back, they still easily defeated the opponent, ushering in the team's eighteenth consecutive victory, to this position, the Lakers' record has far surpassed the Warriors and the Pelicans, and even compared with the Warriors during last year's 73-win period, it is not far behind.

At the same time, the Lakers also have a very big advantage, that is, they will still play against relatively weak teams on the fringes of the playoffs and teams in the rebuilding period for the next period of time. Even strong teams, such as the next opponent Clippers, have a very bad record because of Paul's injury and some problems within their team, and the Clippers have only won 16 games this season, which is worse than the Trail Blazers and other teams, ranking ninth in the West, and even a playoff spot has not yet been obtained.

Although it is said to be an away game, but the game with the Clippers is still in Los Angeles, which is no different from the Lakers, and the home game, last season's team record was so poor, the Lakers' support rate is higher than the Clippers, it is conceivable that this season's confrontation between the two teams has become even more one-sided support, and when the game begins, the scene is indeed the same, although the signs on the floor have been reminding everyone that at this time the Clippers' home court, Although the Clippers are still giving away jerseys printed with the Clippers logo, the audience at the scene is still cheering for the Lakers, which makes the morale of the Clippers who were already depressed because of the lack of core big man Paul now seem even more depressed.

However, although Paul is now absent due to injury, the Clippers are not without the power to fight, their strength on paper is still very good, Jordan Jr. is still the top five center in the league so far, and Griffin is also a variety of injuries, but he is at least a very good player at the power forward position.

But the bad thing is that Griffin's personality and other aspects have some problems, he often brings some negative emotions when he gets along with his teammates, and he is not used to taking responsibility, every time the team loses, he stands on the side of blaming his teammates to express his opinion, which makes many players in the team have a bad relationship with him, including Paul.

As a result, it naturally evolved into the Clippers after losing Paul, the helmsman, quickly deviated from the course he should have, although Jordan Jr. has a higher tactical position in the team, but the right to speak in the locker room is more general, and Griffin should have been the most vocal person in the team except Paul, but because of popularity, everyone didn't want to listen to him, so the team was in chaos in an instant, plus although Doug Reaves is the championship coach, he is actually more of a cook, Except for boiling chicken soup, there is basically no other role, so he is also a little helpless in the face of this kind of thing. Coupled with his cronyism, Reaves is also unpopular on the team, which makes the Clippers' situation more and more embarrassing.

This game is a reflection of the Clippers' season. The Lakers played very scattered in the first half, and Ye Xuan was not particularly in state in this game, only hitting 4 goals in 12 shots in the first half, which completely dropped a level, but even so, the Lakers still had a 7-point lead, all thanks to the 'big pig's head' Doug Reaves and' Little Piggy Head 'Austin Rivers, after not having Paul, Pig Head found a reason to arrange his son Austin Rivers as the starter, and then he was abused by Ye Xuan in all kinds of madness during the 21-minute playing time, even if he shot 1 of 7, he was also cut off 3 goals directly from his hand by Ye Xuan, two of which formed a fast attack. Six half-time turnovers also put Reaves Jr. on the Pillar of Shame.

In the end, the Lakers naturally easily defeated their local rival Clippers and achieved their own nineteen consecutive wins, which can already be ranked in history, but compared to his predecessors, they can continue to expand this record, and even the same 33-game winning streak created by the Lakers.

For the whole of 2016, the Lakers were left with only two games left, one against the Jazz, which was a bit of a bit of an eye-catcher, and the other game that allowed the Lakers to easily renew their winning streak against the Mavericks, who are currently fourth from bottom in the league.

The reason why the game with the Jazz is more interesting is because the Jazz did improve their strength to a certain extent after making a trade, Randy Foye's scoring ability was very easy to integrate into the Jazz, because the Jazz team is very good at creating shooting space, they have Rudy Gobert and Derrick Favors inside, which makes their interior offense very strong, although Gobert is not an offensive player, but can still give a lot of defensive pressure on the inside.

And Foye is very accustomed to this style of play, he can often shoot in the open position, far more than the previous Hood's biased ball-holding style of play with the Jazz, of course, some people feel that the Jazz trade is a loss, after all, Hood is a more reliable scoring guard in the new generation, although the growth rate is not as fast as everyone expected, but at least he is a qualified starter, in exchange for Foye has been playing the role of a substitute in other teams, but Teague is also a more valuable exchange than Evans, So it's hard to say whether the Jazz made or lost money. But at least the current Jazz have a slightly better record than they did before the trade.

And the process of this game also made the fans watch very cool, although Teague was very badly restricted by Ye Xuan on the offensive end, but he was able to find the right point to pass, and after missing Evans and Hood, two people who need the ball, Hayward also got more offensive opportunities, which made the Jazz run more smoothly, plus Gobert's play was also very good today, so at the end of the second quarter of the game, the Lakers even fell behind by 9 points.

At halftime, Wharton was also very anxious, and Ye Xuan's state was also worrying, because this was the second game in a row Ye Xuan was out of mind in the first half, in fact, there was a reason, Ye Xuan's attention in recent games was not particularly concentrated, and I don't know if it was because he felt that the opponent had no challenge or some other reason, in short, in the last two games, Ye Xuan's time consumption to enter the rhythm of the game was really a little bit, which made the Lakers a little worried.

However, it is very similar to the previous game that in the second half, Ye Xuan gradually regained his state, and when the third quarter hit 5 minutes, Ye Xuan's sudden outburst directly made the Jazz team stunned instantly, a strong wave of 14:0 directly brought the game back to the same running line, and then in the subsequent fierce battle, two consecutive two plus one made the game lose suspense at the last moment, 112:108, the Lakers finally won, the great 20 consecutive wins have been achieved, This also equaled the 20-game winning streak that Abdul-Jabbar and Big O had when they were with the Bucks. In front of them, there are only the Rockets' 22-game winning streak, the Warriors' 24-game winning streak last year, the Heat's Big Three's 27-game winning streak, and the Lakers' great 33-game winning streak.

In the next game, they will have the fifth-longest winning streak in the league as they face the Mavericks next. Before this game, Ye Xuan unexpectedly received an invitation from the Magic to have a long talk, I have to say that the Magic of the Lakers who have experienced the 'SHO TIME' period does have a hand in enlightening psychology, after all, Ye Xuan actually has a lot in common with Magic, both are the finals MVP of the rookie season, and they are also more than two meters tall and then serve as a point guard, and they also beat all the opponents in the same position in their own era.

But the difference is that the magician at that time was a little carried away, just like Ye Xuan now, Ye Xuan felt that he had dominated the alliance, and he was a little carried away, so his life began to be a little irregular, although he didn't go out for big health care or anything like that, but he also lost the kind of moderation when he first entered the league, which is why Ye Xuan did not perform well in the first half in the last two games. The magician at that time actually had this situation, but he went out directly to make various appointments, so in the end, he was hit, AIDS, which was the final result.