NBA’s aging star system

On January 1th, the last stop of the Lakers' three consecutive away games was the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The loss to the Thunder in the last game made Su Tian realize the weakness of the team's forward line. This time against the Thunder again, the Lakers' forward line was weaker than last time because Ingram was no longer there.

The Lakers' starting lineup is Ball, Su Tian, ​​Kuzma, Randle, and Lopez.

For the Thunder, Westbrook, Robertson, Paul George, Anthony, Adams.

After the last game, the Thunder seemed to have accurately found a way to deal with the Lakers, taking advantage of the Lakers in the first quarter.

At the end of the first quarter, 25-30, the Thunder led by 5 points in a single quarter.

During the break, Thunder head coach Donovan has also been emphasizing defense against Su Tian.

There is now a certain consensus in the league about dealing with the Lakers. The first premise is to have an advantage on the front line, and then to lead by a big score in the first three quarters. Otherwise, it will be difficult to hold Su Tian down in the fourth quarter.

There are not many people in the league who have this capital. The Warriors count one, the Cavaliers count one, the Thunder count one, and the Rockets only count half.

This is not to say that the Rockets are weaker than the Thunder, but the reason for the restraint of the lineup.

The Thunder's lineup is inherently more restrained than the Lakers.

In the second quarter, Su Tian continued to play, trying to recover the score, but the Thunder also went all out and did not let up, and in the end they still did not let Su Tian seize the opportunity.

At the end of the first half, the score reached 54-60, and the Thunder temporarily led by 6 points.

Both sides fought hard in the second quarter, and the main players must take a break in the third quarter.

At this time, the advantage of having many stars in the team is revealed. The Thunder can let Paul George and Anthony take turns to impact the Lakers' forward line, while the only one on the Lakers side who can carry the team's banner is Su Tian.

The Lakers' disadvantage was obvious. Su Tiancai took a three-minute rest off the court, and the point difference had stabilized at double digits.

So Su Tian only rested for a few minutes before being put on the field again.

After Su Tian came on the court, the Lakers finally stopped their decline and stabilized the situation on the court. However, it was only stable, and it was still difficult to catch up with the point difference.

At the end of the third quarter, the score reached 80-93, with the Thunder leading the Lakers by 13 points.

The Thunder control a double-digit lead and are naturally confident, but Su Tian in the fourth quarter is not easy to mess with.

The first possession of the fourth quarter was given to the Thunder. Westbrook came to the frontcourt with the ball. Facing Ball's defense, Westbrook accelerated directly and ran rampant, easily overcoming Ball's defense and entering the inside. He encountered Nance's defense. Help defend against double teams and pass the ball to George on the outside. George receives the ball and shoots a three-pointer.

Swah——

The two successfully connected, 80-96

The ball possession changed and it was the Lakers' turn to attack.

Su Tian advanced to the frontcourt with the ball. When he met Robertson's defense, Su Tian chose to break through directly with the ball. He threw away the defender with a simple burst and ran straight to the inside with the ball.

But before Su Tian could get inside, George's defensive double-team came over. Seeing this, Su Tian directly passed the ball to Kuzma who was left open. Kuzma received the ball and shot a three-pointer.

Swah——

With the help of Su Tian, ​​Kuzma made a steady three-pointer.

83-96

Although the Lakers successfully scored one goal, they cannot rely solely on role players and star players to hit the target. If the Lakers want to win, Su Tian still has to increase his shots.

In the next few rounds, the Thunder obviously increased their double-teaming on Su Tian. Facing the double-teaming, Su Tian's subconscious action must be to pass the ball to find his teammates. However, after passing the ball twice, Su Tian found that he could not do this and had to do it himself. Take a shot, because even if you are double-teamed, your shot hit rate is higher than that of a role player.

But in this way, the Thunder double-teamed even more unscrupulously, and the point difference did not change much and hovered around 10 points.

In the end, Su Tian still failed to win the game. The score came to 104-115. The Thunder beat the Lakers by 11 points.

本场苏天拿到38分12助攻7篮板2抢断1盖帽，依然是湖人这边最稳的球员。

But except for Su Tian, ​​the Lakers only have Randall, Pope and Kuzma scoring in double figures, and the rest are all in single digits.

反观雷霆这边，安东尼拿到27分3篮板2助攻，乔治拿到21分5篮板3助攻，威斯布鲁克拿到19分7助攻6篮板，连亚当斯也拿到13分10篮板的两双数据。

The Thunder's advantage over the Lakers on the front line is too great, and the Lakers' lineup is naturally suppressed.

The Lakers' record has reached 35 wins and 9 losses. Since being defeated by the Thunder last time, the Thunder have completed a double kill against the Lakers.

This ends the Lakers' three-game away streak, and will begin a three-game home streak.

On the 19th, the Lakers faced the Indiana Pacers at home.

The former boss of the Pacers was Paul George, who had just finished playing against the Lakers. Now the star in charge of the Pacers is Victor Oladipo.

However, unfortunately, Oladipo played the second position and happened to face Su Tian.

The Pacers' starting lineup is Darren Collison, Oladipo, Boyang Bogdanovic, Thaddeus Young, and Sabonis Jr.

The Lakers are Ball, Su Tian, ​​Kuzma, Randle, and Lopez.

Ingram's injury and retirement will of course affect the team's overall strength and rotation, but with Su Tian here, the team's basic guarantee is there.

Just like this game, Su Tian faced Oladipo throughout the game. While completing his 30+10 task, he also completed the full-court blockade of Oladipo.

In the end, the Lakers easily defeated the Pacers 109-86. Oladipo was restricted by Su Tian and only scored 11 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists, and his shooting percentage was only %.

Defeating the Pacers finally stopped the team's decline and rejected three consecutive losses.

On January 1st, the Lakers faced the Knicks at home.

The Knicks are similar to the Pacers. After leaving Anthony, they are destined to embark on a road of reconstruction again.

The Lakers did not struggle with the Knicks for a long time. At the end of the first half, the Lakers were already leading by more than 20 points.

Su Tian only played for a few minutes in the third quarter and gave the remaining time to his teammates.

Tonix's "blessing", Su Tian failed to complete the basic task of 30+10, but the team easily won 127-105.

The Knicks' top scorer was Porzingis' 17 points, while for the Lakers, in addition to Su Tian, ​​Clarkson scored 29 points, 10 assists and 6 rebounds, and Randle scored 27 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists. One of the two supported the starting lineup when Su Tian was absent, and the other supported the bench lineup when Su Tian was absent.

On the 23rd, the Lakers continued to play at home against the Celtics.

Speaking of the Lakers' mortal enemy, most people know the Celtics, but in fact the Knicks can also be regarded as the Lakers' mortal enemy.

This is mainly because of a legendary star of the Knicks, Reed, but those are old stories. The escalation of the grudge between the Lakers and the Celtics in the new century has become one of the iconic grudges in the league.

Before this game, Su Tian originally wanted to contact Irving, but after contacting him, he found that Irving went to find Kobe as soon as he came to Los Angeles, without even thinking of contacting him.