The Los Angeles Lakers were unable to build on the momentum of their In-Season Tournament championship as they fell in a tight game to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night. One of the main reasons Darvin Ham’s team fell was because of Dallas’ hot 3-point shooting, primarily that of Dante Exum.
Exum came into the night shooting just 28.6% from deep on the season and has never been known as an outside shooter. But he knocked down 7-of-9 against the Lakers, including a clutch shot with under a minute left to put Dallas up by six.
After the game, Ham spoke about Exum’s shooting, noting that the Lakers staff felt he was the ideal player to help off of to bother Luka Doncic, and he burned them on this night. But it’s something he will live with, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Definitely impacted it. Defense at this level, in this league, it’s more than like trying to take things away from people. Also what goes hand in hand with that is what you’re willing to live with. In an attempt to put extra bodies in front of Luka, you just decide who you’re gonna play a little bit heavier off of. And hell, these guys are pros.
“You go by the numbers, the trends, what’s been happening up to this point in the season, and those numbers told us that Dante [Exum] could be a heavy shift guy. But he’s a pro. He’s a hell of a player and tonight was his night. It’s a make or miss league and he happened to make them. So he and Grant Williams, Tim Hardaway Jr. as well, I think those guys combining for 17 3s, it’s amazing. 17 out of 26, that’s a ton. All the while trying to deal with Luka.”
The goal is often to force the players other than the stars to beat you, but that backfired for Ham and the Lakers on this night. Even still, Ham still feels they had the right plan coming into the game, but what he won’t accept is the self-inflicted wounds the Lakers gave themselves:
“So it is what it is, but things like that, people shooting the ball that well sometimes, even against a great defense, it’s hard to control that. What we can control though is not allowing them to get 12 free throw attempts in the first quarter and 24 points off our 15 turnovers. So that is what it is, those are things we can control.
“Showing our hands defensively and not fouling with tricky tack fouls pushing them into the bonus. And definitely better ball security. But at the end of the day, they got up to a couple double digit leads and we could’ve folded the tent but we kept fighting until the end. Coming off of what we just came off of, I’m truly, disappointed we didn’t get the win, but the way we fought is encouraging.”
Turnovers and rebounding have been issues for the Lakers all season long and as Ham said, those are things the Lakers can control. The fight of this team has been there in almost every game this season, but there are still things they need to clean up.
It isn’t often that a player like Exum has an unbelievable shooting night like this so in Ham’s eyes, it is more productive for the Lakers to focus on their own issues than one hot night that likely won’t be replicated.
Magic Johnson credits Lakers coach Darvin Ham for job done during In-Season Tournament
While Darvin Ham’s gameplan didn’t quite work out against Dallas, the same can’t be said for the Lakers’ run through the In-Season Tournament and the legendary Magic Johnson took notice.
Johnson praised Ham on social media for the gameplans and strategies he brought out in the wins over the New Orleans Pelicans and Indiana Pacers, calling it great strategy and perfect coaching.
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