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The Lakers' record after the All-Star Weekend has been steady, and the Lakers' fighting power has always ranked among the best in the league, based on their defensive fundamentals and the performance of their absolute main attacker, Wang Chong.
The March and April schedules ended quickly, with Wang Chong's average per game consistently stable and of high frequency.
In 82 regular season games, the Lakers finished with a record of 62-20, a win rate of 75.6%, placing second in the West, only surpassed by the 65-17 record of the San Antonio Spurs.
The team with the highest record in the league is the Chicago Bulls in the East, with 69 wins and 13 losses.
Despite the historic feat, replicating the 73-win record isn't easy.
It's simple: future five-star Warriors, with Durant, couldn't even play with a 73-win record, and the best regular season record for the Warriors in those years was only 67 wins.
It's not just about team strength, but also about various factors like timing, location, and the right people, with team health being the most important.
The Bulls' team clearly didn't have the luck to hit 70+ wins, and even though James and Curry maintained extremely high assist rates this season, Gasol Jr. missed many games due to injuries, ending up playing less than 60 games in the regular season.
In fact, without a major boost, the team still managed to get a 69-win record, which is already an impressive record in itself.
The eight teams from the West that made the playoffs are:
65-17 for the San Antonio Spurs
62-20 for the Los Angeles Lakers
53-27 for the Los Angeles Clippers
50-32 for the Oklahoma City Thunder
42-40 for the Portland Trail Blazers
41-41 for the Dallas Mavericks
40-42 for the Memphis Grizzlies
39-43 for the New Orleans Pelicans
It can be seen that Western teams have started to have significant polarization in records. In earlier days, a team in the West could get 50 wins even if they were seventh or eighth, but now it's less than 50% win rate to make the playoffs.
On the other hand, in the East:
69-13 for the Chicago Bulls
56-26 for the Boston Celtics
54-28 for the Miami Heat
51-31 for the Toronto Raptors
48-34 for the Indiana Pacers
46-36 for the Atlanta Hawks
45-37 for the Charlotte Hornets
44-38 for the Detroit Pistons
Not only the eight teams that made the playoffs but also the Washington Wizards in the ninth place and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the tenth place have a win rate of more than 50%.
It's quite impressive to say the least.
The defending champions, the Cavaliers, didn't even make the playoffs this season, while the Lakers, on the other hand, went from the bottom of the league to the third-best team with 62 wins.
Wang Chong's terrifying dominance on the court has been confirmed once again.
Wang Chong's personal stats this season also marked the beginning of an explosive rise.
He averaged 38.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, and 7.4 assists per game, with a 54% field goal percentage and 43% on three-pointers.
This performance was complete, with Jordan averaging 37.1 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 4.6 assists per game that year.
Looking at NBA history, only Chamberlain in the old days can be stronger than Wang Chong in terms of statistical performance.
But Chamberlain's era was still the barbaric era of the NBA, where opponent strength was uneven, and Zhang Dashuai also had a clear tendency to pad stats, which can't be said at all here.
The strongest part is that Wang Chong is complete on the offensive side, and his defense hasn't lagged behind, with 1.9 steals and 1.8 blocks. Although slightly lower than when he won the DPOY in the last two years, the drop is almost negligible compared to his improvement on the offensive side.
In fact, the defensive system with stable morale behind the Lakers is built around Wang Chong, Green, and Thompson, showcasing Wang Chong's contribution on both offensive and defensive wings.
With an average of 38.4 points per game, Wang Chong was crowned league scoring champion without any suspense, marking the tenth time in his career he won the scoring title, officially tying the former basketball god and second person in history, Michael Jordan.
But Jordan won his tenth scoring title at the age of 35, and Wang Chong is only 31 now, meaning there's still a possibility for more scoring titles.
Wang Chong's personal stats reached a career high, which actually isn't particularly good for the Lakers, because it means the rest of the team's stats must be average.
And that's exactly what happened.
The second-highest scorer for the Lakers, Klay Thompson, is averaging 19.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game this season, shooting 46% from the field. That's a few points lower than when he was with the Warriors, but it's not overly obvious.
But others are different.
Firstly, Kobe Bryant. This season marked the beginning of the worst season of his career, except for his rookie season, averaging 14.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game in the regular season, with a field goal percentage of only 37%.
In reality, this is very normal; Kobe Bryant, who is 37 years old, has suffered a major injury, and it's already remarkable that he can still play on the court.
But the problem is that the Lakers are currently a popular championship team, and with such a drag on the team, even the most die-hard Lakers fans can't help but wonder: should Kobe give up his current starting position for the team's sake?
After all, anyone with an astute eye can see that if Kobe Bryant doesn't play, no matter who replaces him, including Jeremy Lin and Jamal on the bench, with Crawford or others, the Lakers will be stronger than they are now.
As for the Lakers' two interior players:
Draymond . Green is positioned as a blue-collar defensive mainstay, and no one can criticize his performance during the regular season with the Lakers.
Although the stats of 8.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game are not particularly beautiful, they are totally qualified as blue-collar players.
And Jokic, who didn't play well in the first half of the regular season but kept improving in the second half, gradually increasing his average stats from single digits to 12 points and 8 rebounds per game.
These numbers, judging by the identity of an underrated second-round pick, are already a very good performance.
As for the Lakers' bench, players like Jamal Crawford, Jeremy Lin, Nick Yang, Jordan Clarkson have relatively fewer opportunities to perform, and most of them only score in single digits. Jamal Crawford, as the sixth man, averaged 11.8 points per game, but compared to previous seasons, Crawford's average of 18+ and 20+ points per game has decreased significantly.
Mid-season, Crawford expressed his dissatisfaction with his current position and ball handling, wanting the team to trade him.
The Lakers did seek a trade in the free market, but not many teams were interested, so it didn't happen.
But this season is Crawford's contract year, and when the free agency opens in the summer after the season, it's most likely that Crawford will choose to leave the Lakers and pick a team with a higher salary and more playing time.
Wang Chong didn't regret the imminent departure of Keliu, and Jamal Crawford's career highlight mainly came during the 07-15 season.
In the 16-17 season, Crawford, who re-signed a 2-year $24.19 million contract with the Clippers, saw a significant drop, averaging only 12.3 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per game. Then, in the 17-18 season, Crawford, who was sent to the Timberwolves, averaged 10.3 points, 1.2 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game.
So, in Wang Chong's opinion, Jamal Crawford isn't a quality potential asset; just use him a bit and there's no need to keep him.
This is what happened in the Lakers' 15-16 regular season.
What follows is even more intense playoff action.
The Lakers' opponent in the first round of the playoffs is the Memphis Grizzlies, who ranked seventh in the West.
The Grizzlies are also one of the teams that were a bit unfortunate because of Wang Chong. Gasol Jr. was cut, which made them lose their interior core, and they were lucky to get the 07 championship poster, while they were very unfortunate to choose the 07 champion, Oden.
As a result, the Grizzlies have been struggling in the mire for the past few years, and only in the last two years have they started to improve.
But still, the Grizzlies are definitely not a good team, with a 40-42 record this regular season, a win rate of less than 50%, and only the decline of competitiveness in the West allowed them to make the playoffs.
But in the playoffs, they don't care, and they faced the Los Angeles Lakers led by Wang Chong in the first round. How could this play out?
The situation for the Lakers this season is not particularly ideal, and only compared to special teams like the Eastern Bulls and Western Spurs.
Compared to most other teams in the league, the Lakers are an unbeatable superpower.
The Grizzlies are no exception.
On April 17, 2016, the official first game of the first round of the playoffs began.
No mistake, a song, a hair, an interior, a tolerance, a 6, a 9, a book, a glance!
The Lakers had an easy win at their home court, the Staples Center.
From the start of this game, the Lakers took absolute control of the court, with the outside shooting at full force, making it difficult for the Grizzlies to stop, establishing a 15-point lead with 37-22 in the first quarter, and continuing to work hard in the second quarter to extend the difference to 22 points.
At this stage of the game, the suspense was gone.
What excited Lakers fans the most was that Kobe Bryant, who hadn't had any standout moments during the regular season and played very poorly, had a rare performance in this game, shooting 8 out of 15 field goals, 5 of 6 free throws, and scoring 21 points, 3 rebounds, and 6 assists, becoming the second-highest scorer on the Lakers side except for Wang Chong, who scored 27 points.
This performance brought tears to many die-hard Kobe fans.
He's back! Everything's back!
This is the Black Mamba that we know, Kobe Bryant!
Indeed, the poor performance during the regular season was only a symptom, and in the playoffs, Kobe Bryant could still be an effective force for the Lakers.
If Kobe Bryant can maintain this form in the upcoming games, maybe the Lakers will truly have the chance to defeat the Spurs in the Western Conference and win the championship by beating the Bulls in the finals.
But unfortunately, this is just an illusion by Kobe's fans.
Bryant's recovery in form was just a return to the past, because only two days later, in the second game of the series, Bryant hurt his hip again, shooting 6 of 16 field goals, scoring only 15 points with a 37.5% shooting percentage.
But still, the Lakers won with a score of 102-95, which shows the difference in strength between the two teams.
Even with a Kobe Bryant with a very low shooting percentage, the Lakers were still able to easily defeat the Grizzlies.
After suffering a streak of two consecutive losses, the Grizzlies returned to their court in Memphis and things didn't get much better.
On April 22, in the third game of the series, the Grizzlies lost to the Lakers 87-97, bringing the series to 3-0.
Even with the advantage of playing at home, the Grizzlies still couldn't find a way.
By April 24, in Game 4 of the first-round series, the Grizzlies still had nothing to stop the Lakers' Iron Riders.
At the FedEx Arena in Memphis, a large number of Grizzlies fans could only witness their team being eliminated by the Lakers 0-4.
Although they were very reluctant to accept such an outcome, the Grizzlies had nothing they could do, who would let them face the Los Angeles Lakers led by the eight-time champion Wang Chong?
Even in these four games, the Grizzlies didn't force Wang Chong to go all-out.
Wang Chong, who averaged 38+ points per game during the regular season, only averaged 31 points per game in these 4 games, which wasn't a success in defending Wang Chong from the Grizzlies. But Wang Chong didn't need to score 38 points at all, and the Lakers still won.
The Lakers, who swept the Grizzlies to advance to the second round, will face the winner between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks.
Although the Lakers' 4-0 sweep of the Grizzlies was quick, the series between the Clippers and the Mavericks also became largely clear when the Lakers advanced to the second round.
Nowitzki is old after all, and it's already a good result to have led the Mavericks to the playoffs. It's really helpless for him to face the trio combination of Harden, Paul, and Jordan Jr. at the same time.
After four games, the Clippers led 3-1, needing just one more win to eliminate the Mavericks and advance to the second round.
However, the tenacious Mavericks fought back in the next game and pushed the series to 3-2.
But that was their limit.
In Game 6 of the series, the Mavericks finally couldn't fight back again and were defeated by the Clippers, getting eliminated with a 3-4 defeat.
The Clippers, who successfully advanced to the second round, also found themselves facing an opponent they definitely didn't want to encounter: the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers are undoubtedly the toughest rival for the Clippers, not only because the Lakers have Wang Chong, the number one player in the league, but also because both teams are based in Los Angeles and share the Staples Center. The Clippers' fan base cannot compare to that of a giant team like the Lakers.
Although the Clippers have slowly been building a part of their fan base in the past two years with Harden and Paul, they are still too inexperienced.
Basically, every time a game is played at the Staples Center, there is no home court for the Clippers. That is to say, even if the logo on the court floor changes, at least eighty percent of the fans in the stands will be Lakers supporters.
This is definitely not an exaggeration; the disparity in fan bases between the two teams is real. Even if the Clippers manage to grab tickets, they can't compete with Lakers fans at all. Even if the Clippers officially reserve tickets for their own fans, it's difficult to change the outcome.
After all, a large percentage of Staples Center's fans are season ticket holders, and they can't be denied entry just because they are Lakers fans, right?
So, from this perspective, the Lakers are a more complicated rival for the Clippers than the Spurs.
End of this chapter
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