Head coach Darvin Ham’s got 15 games to get the Los Angeles Lakers ready for the NBA playoffs or more likely the Play-In Tournament.
Currently, the Lakers sit in ninth in the Western Conference with a one-game lead over the 10th-seed Golden State Warriors.
Players like Austin Reaves understand Los Angeles needs to treat every game as a must-win, especially with a pivotal game against Golden State on the horizon.
Ham understands how crucial the game against the Warriors is but was encouraged by what he saw from the team’s recent practice.
“Extremely important,” Ham said after practice on Friday. “I thought today was a great day, energy was high. We went through the Sacramento film and just some other things that we can work on, mixed in how we’ve been playing here as of late, some clips from Minnesota or whatever. But for the most part, it was looking at how we can slow down the generation of 3s that are being piled on us. So we looked at that, looked at the rebounding, looked at how we played different schemes on the ball and looked at our offense. We looked at the stretch of the third quarter last game in Sac and looked at the possessions where we were really giving ourselves and advantage with our pace, our screens.
“I thought it was good, a lot of dialogue with a few different guys. I think that’s been great, that’s why we’ve been able to respond after some of these disappointing losses. We look it right dead in the face in the mirror in front of ourselves, coaches and players, and see how we can get better. But definitely one we got onto the floor, we touched on Golden State. We’ll do it again tomorrow so we feel solid about the way we play them, just some little different switch ups here and there that I won’t reveal right now. But we feel good about our chances, for sure.”
Ham also acknowledged how well Golden State’s playing and what they’re doing to pick up wins. “They’re just in rhythm. Those guys play hard for each other. They’re had to make some tough adjustments moving Klay to the bench but he’s embraced it and they’re playing well.
“They’ve dealt with their fair share of injuries recently but that’s a championship organization, championship ballclub. Their core is strong, they’ve got some young guys with obviously Kuminga and Podziemski playing really well, Jackson-Davis playing really well. So we’re gonna have our hands full. They’ve got the right mix or veteran savvy and then young, up and coming energy and guys that know how to play, Wigs and all those guys and now Chris Paul is back. It’s gonna be a hell of a fight tomorrow.”
Matchups between the Lakers and Warriors are always exciting, but whoever comes out on top greatly improves their chances of moving up in the standings.
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