In terms of overall team strength, the Lakers currently rank second in the league, second only to the Brooklyn Nets.
The reason why the ranking is still behind the Nets despite leading the record is mainly because the Big Three of the Nets are too strong in the eyes of the outside media.
Durant himself is known as the king of the league along with James. Although he has been criticized for joining the Warriors and embarking on the most difficult road, no one will question his strength.
Paul George played the best performance of his career with the Thunder last season, averaging 28 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists per game. He has successfully improved his position on the front line and is currently second only to Wang Feng, James, Durant and Leonard.
And Antetokounmpo Antetokounmpo.
As for Irving, although Irving has not proven his ability to lead a team alone in the past few seasons after leaving the Cavaliers, as a certain point guard, with his gorgeous style of play and outstanding one-on-one scoring ability, Irving is a great player on the point guard.
The evaluation of the ball guard position has always been among the top three in the league, and he can definitely compete with Westbrook and Paul.
The combination of three top stars like this gave people so much anticipation that it was even better than the top three Heat players.
Although the Nets are currently slightly inferior to the Lakers in terms of record, they still lead the Eastern Conference and rank second in the league.
In the previous confrontation with another major rival, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Nets won at the Clippers' home court, and it was a hearty victory.
The Nets' Big Three of Durant, George and Irving scored 38 points, 27 points and 25 points respectively.
On the other hand, for the Clippers, Leonard scored 31 points and James scored 29 points plus a triple-double. However, it is difficult for four punches to defeat six hands. Compared with the standard configuration of the Big Three, the dual-core driver is still slightly worse.
Although the Clippers still have bench thugs like the Best Sixth Man Lou Williams, how can they expect a substitute player to step up and save the team every day? Even the Best Sixth Man, to put it bluntly, he is just a
If a substitute is really capable of playing the starting role, who would be willing to play as a substitute all the time?
…
Three super strong teams, the Lakers and Clippers are currently tied at 1:1, while the Clippers and Nets are 0:1. Now it is the Lakers and Nets' turn.
Before the game started, the outside world generally believed that the winning percentage of the Lakers and Nets was about 46 points, with the Lakers having a 40% winning percentage and the Nets 60%. This includes the team lineup, home court advantage, etc.
Of course, this is based on the premise that the players from both teams perform normally and there are no unexpected incidents.
But from an internal perspective, the atmosphere in the locker rooms of the two teams is different.
The atmosphere in the Lakers locker room was quite relaxed, and head coach Walton had made tactical arrangements early.
In fact, there is nothing particularly important.
On the offensive end, just focus on Wang Feng. If Wang Feng is not on the court, the ball will be handed over to Butler, who mainly plays pick-and-roll and off-ball coverage.
The defensive arrangement is not difficult, or even simpler.
Ingram has to defend Durant, and Kuzma has to defend George. The two sides are close in size, and they are definitely more than enough to defend against shots but not penetration.
Butler is responsible for marking Irving. Although it may be difficult for him to keep up with the agile Irving in terms of speed, his physical advantage will not make this matchup a big problem.
As for Wang Feng, although he is a point guard, he plays a defensive role similar to that of Green of the Warriors and Davis, the thick-browed brother of the Pelicans. He assists his teammates more in assisting defense and improves the overall defensive quality of the team.
And under this premise, Wang Feng's position can also be flexible. If Durant's touch is hot and he directly beats Ingram and is unstoppable, then let Wang Feng switch to guard Durant and let the opponent go.
To remove the fire, the same goes for George.
On the other hand, inside the Nets locker room, the team's head coach had a headache.
Wang Feng...who should I ask to defend him?
After thinking about it, he could only look at Paul George, who had the best defensive ability among the perimeter players on the team.
"Paul, it's still up to you to defend Wang Feng."
"Okay coach, I will try my best to restrict Wang Feng." George didn't say much and nodded in agreement.
But after this problem is solved, there is still another problem before the Nets head coach.
Wang Feng is the starting point guard of the Lakers. In addition to Wang Feng, the Lakers' shooting guard is Butler at 2.01 meters, small forward is Ingram at 2.06 meters, and Kuzma at the power forward position is also 2 meters tall.
06, and then there is Brook Lopez who is 2.13 meters tall.
So the question is, Lakers point guard Wang Feng is guarded by George, so who should Irving, who is 1.88 meters tall, guard?
Is it to defend Butler, who is 2.01 meters tall, or Kuzma, who is 2.06 meters tall?
Either one of these two players can take advantage of their height to easily defeat Irving, who has poor defensive ability alone.
This is actually a headache for all teams in the league this season. The average height of the Lakers is too high, and it is really difficult to compete with the regular starting lineup.
Only a team like the Philadelphia 76ers, with a 2.08-meter-tall point guard Ben Simmons, would not be troubled by this.
After having a headache for a long time, the Nets head coach still bit the bullet and asked Irving to defend Kuzma at the power forward position. Although Kuzma is taller, at least his outside shooting accuracy is better than Butler's.
It's a little bit worse, and he doesn't have much ability to control the ball and attack on his own.
Of course, this is a helpless choice. If possible, the Nets head coach would certainly like to use a player of similar height to defend the opponent.
…
Not long after, players from both teams came on the stage ready to start the game.
As the Nets head coach expected, the Lakers fielded a starting lineup of Wang Feng, Butler, Ingram, Kuzma and Lopez.
The Nets' starting five are Irving, Dinwiddie, Durant, George and Jarrett Allen.
In the midfield jump ball, 2017 rookie Jarrett Allen easily beat Lopez, and the basketball was handed over to Irving.
Players from both sides take their respective positions.
The Nets were a little surprised when they saw that Wang Feng neither guarded Durant nor George, nor even Irving, but instead ran to the inside to make a splash.
"Judging from the current defensive positioning situation, Wang Feng should be responsible for defending, and it should be Nets shooting guard Dinwiddie. However, Wang Feng did not choose to follow Dinwiddie closely, but maintained a distant defense with the opponent.
In his position, he seems to want to help defend his teammates at any time."
"Is this the Lakers' defensive tactics against the Nets?"