After defeating the Kings and returning to first place in the Western Conference, the Lakers returned to Los Angeles overnight.
The next night, the Lakers faced the Clippers in back-to-back games at home.
89 to 91, also due to days of hard work and back-to-back schedules, the Lakers were inextricable against a weak team in the Western Conference like the Clippers, and the winner was not decided until the last minute.
Fortunately, they still won. The Lakers finally used this battle to secure their No. 1 spot in the Western Conference.
Then, on January 19, the Suns once again visited the Staples Center.
Since the Suns are already relatively weak inside, Stoudemire is relatively fragile and was injured not long ago.
Against the Lakers, who now have O'Neal in charge, there will naturally be no advantage.
88 to 102, the Lakers won again with a huge advantage of 14 points.
However, in this game, Duan seemed to have reached a physical bottleneck and hit the so-called rookie wall.
He made 8 of 21 shots from the field, 1 of 5 three-pointers, and 3 of 6 free throws. He had no touch and was in poor condition.
Fortunately, he still relied on simple balls and substitute scores, and finally got 20 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists.
Generally speaking, with the help of O'Neal to attract defense inside, even if Duan is not in form, the situation shown in the data is not too bad.
Of course, Du En himself clearly noticed that something was wrong with his situation.
Even though I undergo physical therapy and maintenance after every game, and I usually take nutritional supplements such as wolfberry, abalone, and sea cucumber, I still can't seem to keep up with my body's consumption.
"It seems like I should be smarter on the court!"
After obtaining the Pippen template, Duan's physical fitness has also improved, and because his defensive strength has improved, Duan wants to create an offensive and defensive personality for himself and become an NBA superstar ahead of schedule.
However, it is not easy to truly integrate offense and defense.
A player as strong as Tracy McGrady would also be unable to provide the team with stable scoring in the fourth quarter due to lack of physical strength, so he would be forced to give up defense and concentrate his energy on the offensive end.
Garnett and Pippen also combine offense and defense, but the offense is not as tough as the defense.
It can only be said that only by giving up can you gain. Players like Jordan and Kobe, who have unlimited physical ability and can excel both offensively and defensively, are still too few in the NBA.
Leonard also plays both offense and defense, but he still suffers from physical effects and often takes turns during the regular season.
After James won two championships with the Heat, he also began to save energy and reduce emissions.
Duen's current physical fitness level is not enough, so he can only do his offensive tasks first and manage his own data well.
After all, the value of the defensive end is difficult to reflect using data.
Duane has a lot of game experience in his head and knows how to balance work and rest on the court.
I haven't done that before, it's just that Du En hasn't encountered the current physical bottleneck.
In fact, many players, including stars, will encounter this situation of physical exhaustion approaching the All-Star weekend.
The more obvious one is Andrew Wiggins, the representative figure of health-preserving basketball. Brother Zui is in good shape at the beginning and end of the season every year, and he is relatively good in the month approaching the All-Star Weekend.
Of course, others performed very poorly, usually with their average points per game dropping by four or five points and their shooting percentages dropping by four or five points.
Wiggins has dropped by one or two points, his shooting percentage has dropped by two to three points, and his daily scoring data is still within the fluctuation range of Wiggins' constant.
It can only be said that Wiggins is worthy of being the number one pick in the draft. He is better than most NBA players just relying on his talent.
In a few years, Duan will be full of templates for various players, and he will be similar to Wiggins.
He can crush most NBA players just by relying on his talent. Even if he doesn't rely on the team's system and doesn't need to play smart or simple shots, he can easily score 20 or 30 points on his opponents.
But now, Du En still has to play smarter.
I haven't finished my leveling yet, and with O'Neal and Kobe around me, I can just leave the difficult balls to them and that's it! A simple ball score is also a score, why should you mind this or that?
On January 21, the Lakers resumed their road trip, which also included a back-to-back road trip. This was undoubtedly another huge test for Duan's physical fitness.
Fortunately, the Lakers defeated the Grizzlies in Memphis in the first game.
The Grizzlies are also in the playoff lineup this season, but they are still far behind the Lakers.
O'Neal is not something that Gasol and Lorenzen White can compete with. Duan clearly knows this and reduces some independent attacks and passes the ball to O'Neal more.
However, because the pace of the game under his command was also relatively slow, the score between the two teams at the end of the game was only 88 to 82.
Although Duan reduced his shooting rights and did not adjust his condition, he only got a double-double of 16 points, 5 rebounds and 11 assists.
After winning against the Grizzlies, the Lakers left overnight for Dallas.
The back-to-back schedule is the most difficult, and players as strong as O'Neal are also affected by their physical fitness.
Just like the last time he played back-to-back away games in Denver, O'Neal couldn't run after the first half.
The reason why I was physically weak when playing against the Nuggets was because of the weather, but when I was playing against the Mavericks it was because the Mavericks were so good at running.
As the Mavericks troika continues to gallop around the court, even stronger than O'Neal, Gyarados will also degenerate into Magikarp, lose any temper, and directly transform into salted fish and lie down!
In the second half, O'Neal only played half a quarter. Jackson saw that the difference between two and a half quarters was close to 20 points. O'Neal's difficulties were indeed insurmountable, so he chose to give up the game early.
As for Duen, he only played three quarters of the game. But thanks to facing the Mavericks this time, Duan scored more points than before by relying on transition offense.
With 26 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists, he was the Lakers' scoring leader. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Lakers lost but Duan did not lose.
After losing to the Mavericks, the Lakers rested for a day in Dallas until the night of the 23rd before heading to Salt Lake City overnight.
The Jazz's record this season is not bad. Even though Malone and Stockton, the Utah duo, have left Salt Lake City one after another, the Jazz, under the leadership of coach Sloan, still have a record of 21 wins and 21 losses in the Western Conference.
However, a 50% winning rate cannot advance to the playoffs in the Western Conference.
Unfortunately recently, Jazz leader Kirilenko has also suffered from injuries.
Some people may ask, if Kirilenko becomes the boss, does he have this ability?
The problem is, under Sloan's guidance, if Kirilenko is not injured, the Jazz really have a chance to make the playoffs in the Western Conference.
It's hard for a clever woman to make a meal without rice, and there is really no one who can use the knight.
Even though the Lakers are already a tired force after a long battle, they are still not something the Jazz can defeat.
The Lakers relied on O'Neal and Duane to score 54 points together and successfully defeated the Jazz on the road with a score of 89-83.
After defeating the Jazz, the Lakers did not stay in the ice and snow in Salt Lake City, but returned directly to Los Angeles.
Because there will be no games for the next three days, most of the Lakers players can take time to take a good rest.
But Duen can't do it. Duen still has to shoot a pre-heating commercial for the Duen 1 generation with Nike.
The results of the third round of All-Star voting have been released, and the Los Angeles All-Star Weekend will also be held in the middle of next month.
Now Duane has accumulated 1.275 million votes, surpassing Garnett's 1.273 million votes and Duncan's 1.219 million votes, ranking first in the Western Conference.
According to Nike executives revealed to Duen, Nike will continue to help Duen collect more votes to ensure that Duen can participate in the Los Angeles All-Star Game as a starting forward for the Western Conference All-Stars.
One thing to say, the promotional video for the Duen 1 generation has been filmed, and Nike has prepared hundreds of thousands of pairs of sneakers. Naturally, it is impossible to give up the best marketing opportunity of the All-Star Game.
Compared with spending millions of advertising dollars to promote the first generation of Dune and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire All-Star votes, this marketing expense is not worth mentioning at all...
