The Los Angeles Lakers got back in the win column on Wednesday night, taking down the San Antonio Spurs 122-119. But it was hard for Darvin Ham’s team to feel too positive considering how things went down in the fourth quarter.
Even without LeBron James, the Lakers led by double-digits for the majority of the game, but were outscored 45-30 in the fourth quarter as the Spurs, led by rookie phenom Victor Wembanyama, fought back to make it a game.
Afterwards, Ham praised the Spurs for fighting until the end and stressed the need for the Lakers to be more consistent in building their winning habits, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Yeah, I just said it to them – we can’t get bored with the details. That’s the biggest thing. We got to add common sense to our talent. It’s not so much about who we’re playing, what their record is. It’s about us and the way we want to represent ourselves every time we step out on the floor. Trying to get better, trying to build winning habits and be consistent at those winning habits. So we’re fortunate to get that W, they’re a young team.
“Their record may say they’re struggling but they have a bunch of young guys out there just trying to establish themselves as pros and play and do the right thing, play the right way trying to do everything that Pop asked them to do. So it doesn’t matter if they’re up 20, down 20, they’re not gonna stop coming at you. The biggest thing is us and the way we want to represent ourselves on the basketball court. We’re fortunate to pull that one out but we’ll have a day off coming off a back-to-back and we’ll watch it on film Friday morning.”
Ham would continue on, adding that the time for the Lakers to create and enforce those habits is now and not when playoff time nears:
“I just think you continue to teach and stress what I just said, your habit and your principles and what we want to be about as a ball club. It’s no secret, we have championship aspirations. It can’t be I’m gonna wait until February or March or April to turn it on. We have to start building those habits right now, immediately. It may not always be perfect but you got to strive to initiate the game the right way, sustain what you’re trying to do well and being able to finish that way.
“You can’t get bored, you can’t skip steps, take off possessions. You got to be locked in throughout the whole entire deal. Again, we’re fortunate. Whenever you can get a win in this league against whoever, you have to be thankful. That said, there’s a lot of things we can take away that we know good and damn well we can get better at.”
Getting the win is important, but there are simply mistakes being made by the Lakers that can’t happen against the better teams in the NBA and Ham knows that. This team has championship aspirations and even with James out, this should have been a game that was put away.
These issues will be addressed, but it will be up to the Lakers to use this as a learning point and continue to improve from here.
Lakers legend Magic Johnson credits Darvin Ham for coaching job done during In-Season Tournament
While Darvin Ham has come under some outside criticism, Lakers legend Magic Johnson believes the coach deserves credit for a job well done during the Lakers run to the In-Season Tournament Championship.
Johnson took to social media to praise Ham for his strategies in the team’s victories over the New Orleans Pelicans and Indiana Pacers in Las Vegas, believing it played a huge role in L.A. coming out on top.
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