Leonard shot into the penalty area, and the Eagle’s defensive formation began to shrink into the penalty area. Leonard distributed the ball to Morris, who had no choice at the bottom corner, but turned the ball to Norman Powell at the top of the arc. Powell hit the ball against the two men’s attack
Leonard tried to pick and roll with Batum at the top of the arc, and named Terry Yang. Yang wisely chose to delay rather than change the defense. Leonard was forced to continue to match with Hunter, the best outside defender of the opponent, to make a backward jump shot under the interference of Hunter’s long arm and hit the iron
Leonard tried to pick up and roll again. This time, the eagle chose to double hit, Leonard put the ball out of the free throw line, Bartum turned the ball to Powell in the bottom corner, Powell passed the ball to Morris at 45 degrees, and Morris tried to pass the ball again when he was snatched by De Zhangtai Murray’s long arm
If a friend wants to know how the Clippers lost 11 points of lead, these pictures are the answer. The Hawks are not a strong opponent. They have also been in trouble recently. They have lost five games in six games. However, in the face of the large lineup led by Lu Zhi and Zubates, Trey Young still showed his star quality, scored 14 points in the last half of the game, and took a difficult victory from the Crypto Tennis Arena
The eagle won hard, but the Clippers lost easily. They fell behind by 17 points in the second quarter, set off a counterattack frenzy in the third quarter, led by 11 points in the fourth half of the quarter, and were finally beaten by the Hawk 17-4. The whole process was ups and downs, but the fans who watched the game will only remember their last top-shot misses and eye-popping mistakes. And they have fallen into six consecutive defeats – the Clippers’ longest losing streak in the era of Cajiao
What is more painful than losing a game is what the team can learn from losing. Four days ago, the Clippers were beaten by the Denver Nuggets, the number one team in the West, in the second half, and all the main players did not play. Leonard said in an interview after the game that he knew exactly where the team lost:”We need to play harder, play faster, play smarter, have more sense of urgency, and pass the ball more. The reason why we fell behind is that we threw too many hero balls. This game showed us what we need to do better.”
So yesterday we saw a fleet of Clippers that everyone was hesitant and trembling. They certainly do not”play faster and smarter”, because that may be beyond their ability, but they can”pass the ball more”. But in fact, the small ball team cannot play in this way. A small ball team cannot accept watching a player slowly moving the ball at the top of the arc, which does not bring any pressure to the opponent’s defensive formation, nor can it accept the ball beating drums and passing flowers between two flanking players like a hot potato. A classic 5 Out lineup needs more decisive singles, faster transfer of the ball and more resolute shot to punish the opponent
But now it seems that it is difficult for Clippers to do this. At the last minute of the game, their players were Leonard, Bartum, Powell, Morris and Mann. Only Bartum was a qualified player. The passing quality of the whole team was appalling, which led to that even when there was a flash of empty space, everyone was not firm enough
Their starting point guard in the past three years only played as a substitute for 7 minutes in this game, making 0 out of 2 shots and 1 point. When asked whether Reggie Jackson has fallen out of rotation, Lu said that he was”just looking for ways to get the team back on track”:”Reggie didn’t fall out of rotation, I was just trying different things. Reggie didn’t play tonight, and tomorrow may be someone else. When you lose five games in a row, you always want to try something different.”
When the head coach”looks for ways to get the team back on track” equals”let you play less”, he and at least one of you must have problems. It’s hard to say if there are any problems with Lu, but Reggie certainly has. In the five consecutive defeats before the Clippers, Reggie didn’t have a positive or negative value in one game, and the shooting percentage was only 31.7%. The team lost 46 points in 123 minutes
This is the first problem faced by Clippers: fatigue. In the past three seasons, because of Leonard and George’s massive, repeated and serious injuries, the Clippers’ role players have taken on too much defensive pressure that they should not bear, and have also eaten a lot of ball rights beyond their ability. Such things may bring them data and joy at the beginning, but they will only feel tired after two years, especially for Reggie, 32, and Morris, 33
This fatigue is not only physical, but also spiritual. When Wall just joined the Clippers for a month, he found this problem and said a few words
“We must find a way to get happiness from the game. I often say to my teammates in the dressing room, ‘Enjoy the time you can play, I haven’t played for two years’. I know that everyone feels under great pressure, but if we can’t find fun and enthusiasm from the game, it’s hard for us to stick to a season.”
Powell sometimes brings such vitality to the Clippers. He just arrived at the Clippers last season, and finally got the opportunity to perform in the team of potential champion competitors. He has the will and the opportunity to compete for a seat of the sixth man of the year. Mann has also played well this season. He is young and strong, and is in the rising stage of his career. But most of the time we saw the match like yesterday. Everyone stood outside the three-point line and did not move, waiting for the star to feed the food into their mouth in an awkward position, but they might not be able to swallow it
The Clippers’ attack last year was not very good, and they only ranked the 24th in the league in points per hundred rounds, but at least they had the third three-point shooting rate in the NBA (37.4%). What about this season? Their three-point shooting rate only ranks the 10th (36.8%) in the league, and their real shooting rate also ranks the 19th (57.0%) in the league, while their attack efficiency (110.7) per hundred rounds only ranks the 28th in the league, only better than the Rockets and Hornets
A player without passion and fun can also play games, because that is their job. But for the Clippers, the impact of this problem is particularly serious: in their regular rotation lineup, there is only one center in Zubates (recently, they have tried to use Moses Brown, and the effect is very general). They spent a lot of time playing small balls in the game. As we said, the small team has the highest requirements for players’ offensive ability, reading ability and subjective aggressiveness
It is well known that after De Antony returned home, Lu has become the world’s favorite coach with a small lineup. But his small lineup has become more and more strange recently. We can accept Morris as the center of the lineup at some time. If the time is not long, Bartum and Coventon can play as the center for a while. But recently we began to find that Coventon fell out of rotation, and George gradually appeared in the center position. Occasionally, Lu Gui would show us his four-back formation of Wall (1.91 meters), Powell (1.91 meters), Kennard (1.96 meters) and Garman (1.96 meters). In addition to the operation of coach Hammer in the same city when he was in a medical emergency, we have never seen anything more outrageous
But we can’t be too harsh on Lu’s guidance. He needs to solve two problems: first, the team’s problem is not at the defensive end, but at the offensive end. The Clippers’ defensive efficiency ranks 7th in the league, and the offensive efficiency only ranks 28th in the league; Secondly, it is also a really important issue. The Clippers’ injury list is updated every day. Every day, he does not know whether the two most important players in his team can play tomorrow. He sometimes understands that it is ridiculous to put up such a team. But when he looks at the bench, he can see that some players are wearing suits and some players are not worthy to play. He also knows that he has no choice
The role players of the Clippers are also very aggrieved. In terms of their ability, each of them is of high quality or even value, but you can’t ask pickles, scallions and ginger to make a dish for you. Director Lu is a very good cook. When the Clippers hired him, they wanted him to jump over the wall. As a result, he tried to fill everyone’s stomach without abalone today and shark fin tomorrow. As a champion coach who has been coaching this team for two and a half years, we should not blame him. Of course, we should not blame him for bearing too much apricot mushrooms and quail eggs in the past two years when he was boiled into Mao Xuewang
This is the case. The Clippers now have a small lineup with no vitality, and a large lineup with hard injuries; The star’s attendance is poor, and the role players are exhausted; The attack is a mess, and the defense occasionally makes mistakes; The old problem has not been solved yet, but new problems have come again
In view of the team’s salary situation and lineup structure, it is not realistic for Clippers to make a major adjustment in the personnel list now, and it is useless to replace Lu Gui. What the most optimistic Clippers fans can do now is to comfort themselves that George and Leonard are not completely healthy. When they return with blood, they will surely be able to lead the team together – just as they have said to themselves every day in the past two and a half years
Is there anyone so optimistic in the world? Anyway, the reporter in front found one after the game. He said to the microphone:”I don’t think six consecutive defeats are a big deal. Our players are still optimistic. Now it is time to prove whether we can enjoy the game and whether we can bounce back as a collective bottom. I think it is a great challenge for us.”
This man’s name is Cavai Leonard. After three years of fragmentation, do you still believe him
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