Basketball boy, starting to shine from the slam dunk

The next day, October 10, the Lakers came to Phoenix and faced the Suns in a back-to-back away game.

Last season, the Suns' two stars Devin Booker and Eric Bledsoe both averaged 20+ points per game, but the team's record ranked last in the Western Conference.

Their lineup has not changed much this season, and there is a clear gap in strength between them and the Lakers.

In the end, the Lakers defeated the Suns 116:105 without any bloodshed.

In this game, Zhuang Yu scored 28 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, Lopez scored 19 points, Anderson scored 14 points, Holiday scored 11 points...

After two consecutive wins, the Lakers returned to their home court and immediately faced challenges from the Pistons, Wizards, and Raptors.

There was no suspense, the Lakers won all three games.

After five games, the Lakers won all of them and achieved five consecutive wins in the regular season.

In these games, Zhuang Yu averaged 28.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 6.0 assists per game. His average points per game currently ranks third in the league, second only to James Harden's 31.2 points and Anthony Davis' 28.6 points.

It is worth mentioning that Russell Westbrook of the Thunder once again averaged a triple-double, but his average points per game was not as explosive as last season, only 26.2 points.

The Lakers played very well in several games, especially the performances of Zhuang Yu, Lopez, Anderson and Clarkson.

There is no need to talk about Zhuang Yu. Although his personal data is a little worse than last season, his efficiency value is higher than last season. Lopez averaged a double-double of 19.8 points and 10.2 rebounds in these games, Clarkson averaged 16.6 points, and Anderson made obvious progress, averaging 12.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists.

You know, this is when the team has Zhuang Yu, Lopez, Holiday and others, Anderson does not have as much ball possession and opportunities as last season.

But under such circumstances, his personal data is better than last season.

Ordinary fans will only think that the Lakers are very strong after watching the Lakers' games, while other NBA teams will only analyze the data of every Lakers player and the data of every game, and often come to a conclusion that the Lakers' starting lineup this season is too strong.

Of course, not everyone performed so well.

Holiday's performance did not meet people's expectations.

The two most important reinforcements for the Lakers this season are Holiday and Korver.

Korver's performance is still very good. After all, he is a three-point shooter and he is already 37 years old. At this age, you can't ask too much of him. As long as he can make three-pointers when there are opportunities, it doesn't need to be too many. Being able to make two three-pointers in a game is already a good performance.

In fact it is.

In the past few games, Korver averaged 2.6 three-pointers per game, which is better than expected.

In the past few seasons, Korver has averaged only about 2.5 three-pointers per game, but as he gets older, the outside world expects that this data will decline, but the Lakers' lineup avoids this.

The Lakers' starting lineup includes Zhuang Yu and Lopez, both of whom are players with strong scoring threats, and have reasonable inside and outside configurations. They can open up space well, attract defense, and create shooting opportunities for Korver outside the three-point line.

Also, the Lakers have a lot of people who can pass the ball.

Not to mention Zhuang Yu and Holiday, Anderson also has good ability to organize and pass the ball. Even Lopez has shown good supporting and passing abilities in the past two seasons. Korver doesn't need to worry about not being able to catch the ball. As long as he can create an opportunity, no matter who has the basketball in their hands at this time, they can pass it to him in time.

And Korver only needs to do one thing, catch the ball and shoot it.

This environment makes Korver very comfortable. His competitive state is indeed not as good as before, but the shooting opportunities he gets on the court are much better than before. Quite often, after he receives the basketball, he has an open opportunity. How can he not shoot accurately?

After several games, Korver averaged 2.6 three-pointers per game, and his three-point shooting percentage reached 47%, which is quite high.

In contrast, Holiday, who was originally highly expected by people, did not meet people's expectations.

Although Holiday played well, his role was more reflected on the defensive end. His defense was indeed excellent, which improved the Lakers' overall defense.

It's just that on the offensive end, in terms of scoring and even organization, his performance is lower than when he was with the Pelicans last season.

After several games, Holiday averaged 9.8 points, 3.6 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game, all of which were lower than last season.

You know, the Lakers gave him a big contract with an annual salary of nearly 3000 million, signing him with almost the standard of an All-Star player.

However, his average of 9.8 points, 3.6 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game is obviously not satisfactory.

Some fans criticized Holiday, believing that he started to slack off after getting the big contract, and that his performance was obviously not worth 5 million for five years.

Some fans also believe that Holiday made sacrifices for the team. He reduced the number of personal shots, gave opportunities to others on the offensive end, and focused on defense. Although his average statistics are not as good as last season, his contribution should not be ignored.

And at this time, the Lakers faced their next opponent - an away game against the Pelicans.

This was Holiday's home team last season. Considering the recent discussions about him in the outside world, he was pushed to the forefront for a while.

Some fans stared at the TV early to see how Holiday would perform.

There is a saying that a player's true strength can only be seen when he plays against his former team.

After some players leave a team, they often fight hard and play extra hard when they meet that team on the court.

There are also some players who are just the opposite. When they meet their old team, they feel uncomfortable all over, as if they can't play anymore.

...

The competition officially started at seven o'clock in the evening.

This is the home court of the Pelicans. Most of the people in the audience are Pelicans fans, and among them there are even fans wearing Holiday's Pelicans jersey.

Seeing these fans, Holiday felt a little complicated. After all, he had been with the Pelicans for four years and he still had some feelings for them.

First there was a jump ball, Lopez and Cousins ​​jumped the ball, Lopez touched the basketball first and hit the ball to the backcourt, Holiday controlled the ball and started to advance.

At this time, boos began to be heard from the audience...

There are fans who still miss Holiday, and there are naturally fans who don't like him and regard his departure as a betrayal. At this moment, there was a huge booing in the audience, which made Holiday stunned and a little dazed...