So I am the god of basketball?

The Lakers' first loss of the new season came later than in previous years.

They didn't lose their first game of the season until February 2.

Of course, the main reason is that the new season only starts on February 2th.

After losing the second game, some fans couldn't help but feel worried.

Even though Kobe rebounded strongly in the second game and they won the game again, avoiding a losing streak, they were still nervous.

However, the Lakers maintained their form very well afterwards. They won three consecutive games before losing the second game of the season. Their winning rate remained above 60% afterwards.

The Lakers hit bottom in February, with a record of 2 wins and 14 losses in 10 games of the new season.

Surprisingly strong.

The Los Angeles media also said at this time: "With Dream here, this team's bottom line is there. The Lakers are still the top team in the league!"

Barkley also praised the Lakers every time they played: "Among so many players in the NBA who can be used as core players, Dream is still unique. The team with him will always be a favorable candidate for the championship!"

Meng Lang also forgot to tell him:
Don't say anything, we're one family!
You don’t know how poisonous your mouth is!

Barkley's words of malice led to the Lakers' three-game losing streak in March. They won the first game in March thanks to Meng Lang's "big triple-double" of 50 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists. But they then suffered two more losses.

March started with a 1-5 record.

The ranking also dropped directly from second in the Western Conference to fifth in the Western Conference.

Putting aside Barkley's "poisonous milk", the reason why the Lakers encountered such great ups and downs is that other teams gradually adjusted their status and entered the regular season mode.

As a result, the Lakers' advantage of maintaining a better off-season condition is gone.

The weakness of the lineup and the test of Kobe's role as the "second in command" have revealed problems.

Chuck Daly did not immediately adjust the experimental lineup when problems arose, as he had done in the past.

In his opinion, this lineup of the Lakers will become the signature lineup of the Lakers in the next two to three years. Even if he has to give up this season, he wants to let this lineup of the Lakers be run-in to the state it should be in.

Moreover, with the playoff experience this team has accumulated, there is no need to worry even if it enters the playoffs as the 8th place in the regular season. Instead, the teams with higher rankings should be nervous.

No matter how turbulent this team is, one thing is certain:
Now they just need to adjust their condition and they can compete with any team in the league.

Another point is the key to the Lakers' 1-5 record.

Their recent schedule does have a larger proportion of strong teams.

In the first game in March, they met the Heat, who were ranked first before the start of the season.

After the start of the season, they also demonstrated their strength as the "top seed". It was not until the tenth game of the new season that they suffered their first loss.

At this time, the Lakers had already lost three games.

Eddie Jones returned to his home court as an opponent for the first time, and the Lakers fans also cheered.

It’s not that Lakers fans are very generous.

But...

The game results in February were very ideal, and as fans we tend to be particularly generous at this time.

After all, I'm living well without him!

If Eddie Jones had faced him in this recent game, he would have been booed.

The Heat walked away with a victory with a 100-point lead of 90 to 10. After the game, Shaq smiled happier than ever before.

After the Heat, they also met the Philadelphia 76ers.

The 76ers did not start the new season that strong. One reason is that they need to get used to each other, and the other is that the head coach has not yet found a way to really use these three players. Don't think that you can easily win by just having a bunch of superstars on the bench and a dog tied to it.

There are many examples of powerful teams falling from grace in NBA history and in the future that have yet to happen.

The cooperation between superstars is also very similar.

And this requires exploring how to make the superstars feel comfortable.

After the running-in, the team successfully showed its strong side. They won 11 consecutive games in late November, directly squeezing the Bulls and Pistons behind them, ranking second in the Eastern Conference, and only one win behind the Heat.

The Lakers have no chance of winning against this team either.

Even worse than the Heat...

When playing against the Heat, the Lakers could at least double-team inside to appropriately limit Shaquille O'Neal, and then rely on Meng Lang and Kobe's firepower on the outside to create a stalemate. If Kobe hadn't suddenly lost power in the fourth quarter, the Lakers would never have lost by 10 points, and Meng Lang even had a chance to make the buzzer beater.

It was different when playing against the Philadelphia 76ers. Neither Meng Lang nor Kobe could limit Allen Iverson.

The combination of Ben Wallace and Divac in the interior was also restricted by the combination of Mutombo and Tim Duncan of the Philadelphia 76ers. It was the first time that Meng Lang saw an interior team that could restrict these two people like this.

Of course, it is not surprising for him. At his peak, Ben Wallace was only afraid of three people: Yao Ming, Shaquille O'Neal, and Tim Duncan.

He really can't defend against this kind of powerful opponent who has absolute height.

The Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers are also known as this year's "Eastern Double Power". They are the biggest favorites to win the championship.

In the Western Conference, a team that can compete with them has emerged, and it is none other than the Golden State Warriors.

The Golden State Kings, with Chris Webber as the core and more talented, also showed their talent. After the first month, they only lost 2 games.

These three teams have gradually become the "three teams" with the greatest potential to win championships in the media's eyes.

Players from these three teams are also competing for the "Player of the Month Award" for the first month.

竞争的势头无比的激烈，金州勇士队这边克里斯-韦伯场均24.3分11.4篮板4.4助攻1.4抢断1.2盖帽；沙克-奥尼尔场均26.5分13.4篮板2.8盖帽；费城76人这边两个核心更有“明星味”，蒂姆-邓肯场均24.6分12.4篮板4.6助攻2.4盖帽1.4抢断，阿伦-艾弗森场均26.6分4.25篮板7.5助攻；

In the end, the "Player of the Month Award" went to Philadelphia's "No. 1 pick twins."

Philadelphia media immediately posted a poster:
The cornerstone has been laid, Philadelphia is about to prosper!
The Lakers encountered too many strong teams in a short period of time, which put a great test on the players' mentality, and the Lakers' state was affected. This is also the main reason for the Lakers' 1 win and 5 losses.

However, Chuck Daly is not worried at all, because he can see that the condition of the entire Lakers team is gradually getting better.

Especially the most critical Kobe...

Of course, he couldn't just sit there and do nothing. During this period, he officially established the Lakers system with Ben Wallace as the absolute core of defense. Everyone cooperated with him to move, and his mobility was fully utilized.

Ben Wallace's highest average of blocks per game in his career was 01 per game in the 02-3.5 season.

Recently, under Chuck Daly's adjustments, he can contribute 5 blocks per game, and often get such strange data as "5 plus 10 plus 5".

Why is this data so strange? Because the usual “10 plus 5 plus 5” is “points plus rebounds plus assists”.

And Wallace's "5 plus 10 plus 5" means "points plus rebounds plus blocks"!
It's pretty much the same with Green.

Let them get other data, they are very confident, but letting them score is really killing them.

Divac is becoming more and more comfortable in the high position.

After they gradually adapted to their new positions, Kobe, who was in the most difficult position, finally found his own style. In the next three games, he scored more than 20 points in a row. This was the first time he did this this season.

In the past, he would score 30 points in one game and only 15 points in the next.

If you get 18 points in the last game, you may only get 11 points in the next game.

Very unstable.

This means that there are big problems with his shot selection.

After solving these problems, Kobe still has unstable conditions. To put it bluntly, Kobe is the top "nervous knife", and the kind of nervous knife with a big heart. The more critical the moment, the more excited he is, the more determined he is, and the more accurate he is.

Even if there are still some downturns, it is already within the range that the Lakers can bear. At least he can stand up and support the team for a period of time.

With Meng Lang's current abilities, all he wants is a teammate to stand up and take the blame for him for a while, and then he can continue to hold the gun and keep working!
Despite a poor start in March, the Lakers still managed to finish with a record of 3 wins and 14 losses.

Yes, you read that right, the Lakers played 3 games throughout March.

And they still have 12 games to play before the end of the regular season.

Various “back-to-back” games are the characteristics of the “shortened season”.

But the players are also eager to play more games.

Their salaries are based on the number of games played.

They can only get more than 50% of the contract money after playing 60 games. If they really only play or games, some minimum-salary players will have to work part-time like the players in the Development League.

In fact, we can see from here that the Lakers are in good shape.

In April, the Lakers had no major problems except fatigue. Relying on their youth and good health, they did not even encounter any headaches with injuries. This is a relatively rare advantage in the current league.

There are so many back-to-back games that even the Warriors have had injuries, which makes the Lakers, ranked fourth in the West, once again the favorite to enter the finals in the West.

Finally, all the games in April were over. The Lakers won 4 of the 50 games, which put them in fourth place in the Western Conference.

The SuperSonics are still first in the Western Conference with a record of 37 wins and 13 losses.

Second in the Western Conference is the Golden State Warriors. They have been ranked first in the Western Conference for most of the season, but this time they only have 34 wins and 16 losses.

In the end, they only won one more game than the Lakers.

However, this was not the most uncomfortable thing for them.

What is even more distressing is that:
Hardaway suffered a season-ending injury. Although it was not a complicated one like the knee or ankle, without Hardaway, the team's outside shooting obviously dropped a level. With more loopholes, the weak foundation of the Warriors lineup was exposed.

Their starting lineup is strong, but their bench lineup is really similar to the Lakers.

It's true that one less starting main force will reduce the strength by a level...

Third in the Western Conference is the Portland Trail Blazers.

The second "dark horse" in the West, unlike the Kings, they are the team that will make a comeback in the later stages.

Paul's "buy, buy, buy" strategy finally worked.

The Timberwolves are still fifth in the Western Conference.

Because of Kevin Garnett's contract issues, the Timberwolves' lineup this season may be their best lineup in the next few years.

The Minnesota media must be dissatisfied with the most promising season ending like this.

Especially since they are ranked fifth in the Western Conference and will face the Lakers in the first round. They really don't know whether they got the fifth place by their own strength or it was given to them by those bastards below.

Anyway, judging from the Timberwolves' team atmosphere this season, it is not as good as last season.

There are obviously players in the team who want to grab data...

Yes, Kevin Garnett alone took half of the team's salary. How could this not make people jealous?

The problem ultimately comes down to Kevin Garnett's lack of qualifications. He has no regular season MVP, no championship ring, and his only personal honor is an All-Star starter. He has never even led his team into the first round of the playoffs. How many people on the team can be satisfied with a guy like this getting such a top salary?

You have to ask for money, but you also have to earn your own face.

The remaining three Western Conference playoff teams are:

Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz and Sacramento Kings.

The Jazz's decline was expected.

But no one expected that they would decline so quickly.

This is a bit unexpected.

As for the other two teams, everyone thinks it is reasonable to be the "extras" in the Western Conference.

In the Eastern Conference, the Miami Heat are still ranked first.

They finished with a league-best record of 39 wins and 11 losses.

With such a dense schedule, the Heat only lost one game. You have to admire how strong the team is now.

The Philadelphia 76ers encountered some injury problems, which led to their failure to catch the Heat in the later stages, and their final record was 33 wins and 17 losses.

Third in the Eastern Conference is the Pistons, who have a record of 32 wins and 18 losses.

Such results are unlikely to satisfy Pistons fans.

They don't blame the Heat and Philadelphia 76ers for having supermodel lineups this year. In their opinion, if the Pistons can't make the finals this year, they might as well just rebuild. This is the extreme Detroit.

The Great Depression, coupled with the taste of winning the championship, made their mentality impatient and pessimistic.

They are eager to see victory and are not willing to wait.

The fourth team in the Eastern Conference is the Chicago Bulls. (End of this chapter)