For the second consecutive night, the Los Angeles Lakers found themselves on the wrong side of a blowout loss. The Lakers fell 138-122 to the Atlanta Hawks and are once again below .500 on the season as head coach Darvin Ham continues to look for answers on how to fix things.
In Atlanta, there were many of the same issues that have plagued the Lakers all season long, chief among them being the team’s slow starts. The Lakers gave up 36 points in the first quarter and, after trailing by 11 at the half, quickly saw their deficit grow to 20 within the first three minutes of the third quarter.
After the game, Ham spoke on the Lakers’ lack of defensive intensity to start halves, noting that great defense can help carry them through those tough offensive stretches, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“You definitely need to step up and make your free throws. But even before you get to that, I just told the team after the game that we got to figure out how to give more resistance defensively for those first and third quarters. You start out and try to build a foundation for the game on that side of the ball, which if you’re good on that side of the ball, it can carry you through some bad or unforeseen circumstances offensively. It allows you to get a rhythm offensively when you’re good defensively and it creates some easy offense.
“But we came out and had a couple breakdowns in transition, a couple breakdowns in terms of finishing the possession defensively with a rebound and then they get a rhythm, they get going, they’re juices start bubbling. Now you’re in a dog fight and you’re facing a deficit. So by the time you do start making headway offensively, you’re playing behind the eight-ball.”
This has been an issue all year long and Ham and the team have yet to figure out the solution. While the Lakers have had some rough situations at times this season, Ham knows they can’t use them as excuses and needs to look in the mirror and step up:
“So it’s just a matter of, again, look at it. Tomorrow will be a travel day, we’re coming off this back-to-back. Unfortunate circumstances with the travel, but it’s been like that all year though. Having a back-to-back, no AD, it’s different circumstances that you can use them as excuses or you can say hey, the whole league goes through it and we got to look ourselves in the mirror and man the hell up. So it will be more of that, but also looking at it with clear eyes on how we can turn this thing around and not make those same mistakes that eventually hurt us. Those self-inflicted wounds.”
Time is running out for the Lakers to figure things out and if they can’t find the answer, it will be an unfortunate wasted season that Ham’s job may not survive.
Lakers’ Darvin Ham ‘thankful’ to be able to coach LeBron James
One major reason why this Lakers season can’t afford to be wasted is because of the unbelievable performance of LeBron James, who is growing frustrated himself.
In his first head coaching job, Darvin Ham has been able to coach one of the greatest players in NBA history and that is not lost on him. Ham recently praised LeBron after another outstanding performance and said he was ‘thankful’ to be able to coach him and represent the Lakers alongside the legend.
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