The opening minutes of games have been put under a microscope ever since Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham opted to remove D’Angelo Russell from the starting lineup in favor of Jarred Vanderbilt.
This gives the Lakers a defensive-minded starting unit that statistically speaking was likely to struggle offensively. That came to fruition against the Boston Celtics.
The Lakers began their marquee Christmas Day matchup against the Celtics about as poorly as a team can start a game. It took three minutes for L.A. to score their first points, at which time the Celtics had already built a 12-0 advantage. That lead effectively held the rest of the way, as the Celtics left Crypto.com Arena with an 11-point victory.
Ham spoke about the slow start but didn’t concede anything with regard to his new starting lineup.
“We came out a little lethargic,” Ham said. “Just coming off a long trip and then the whole Christmas circumstance of the holiday or whatever, early game, took us a little bit of time to get going. But we had some great looks early. A couple bad turnovers but for the most part when you go back and look at the shots we got, theirs went in and ours didn’t but we had some really terrific looks at the rim. Our guys kept fighting.
“It was a tough start but second quarter we really made up some ground. Closed the first quarter out good, made up some ground in the second quarter and made it a game, third quarter came out and then we put them on the free throw line. Fourteen free throws for them in the third after holding them to nine for the entire first half. I think it hurt us big time. It really puts your defense in jeopardy and causes you to kind of play on your heels when they get in the penalty that quickly, especially against a good team like that. They’re gonna make you pay with every mistake you make.
“We fell asleep in transition defense at times and they were able to get behind us and get layups. There was a miscommunication about matchups, so Al [Horford] hit a huge open 3 in front of the bench. So a lot of work to do. I told the team after the game, it’s not so much that I don’t think our level of talent or our competition, there’s a lot of great teams and no nights off in this league anymore, but we can’t skip the details.
“We can’t get bored with the details. Sprinting back each and every time no matter how difficult it can be, fatigue, what have you. You sprint back on transition D and allow your team to have a chance to have the offense in front of you and not be scattered and have them behind you. Then not fouling, giving up defensive rebounds, not turning the ball over, being organized and playing with force offensively.”
When asked to elaborate further on the starting lineup’s potential role in the slow start, Ham discussed offensive stagnation.
“I just think not allowing it to stagnate us. If they’re trying to play off Cam then step up and shoot it with confidence or eat up that space on a drive, collapse the defense once he touches the paint and try to find the open man.
“Same thing with Vando. The ball hits him, you can’t hold it and be confused, you just got to move on to the next thing whether it’s a pitch ahead to his teammates, a DHO or if a shot goes up and they’re off of him, go hunt down and offensive rebound to get us some extra possessions. So again, it’s playing fast. Try to be in rhythm making decisions and doing things with force.”
Overall, though, Ham attributed the loss and the slow start more to the all the recent travel the Lakers have done and the beginning stages of the “dog days” of the season setting in.
“I mean, we’ve been zipping and zagging across the country, man. Back and forth across the country and then again, everybody has family in town for Christmas Day. You’re disappointed, but you’re not discouraged. We dropped to like 16-15, I believe. We’ve got 51 games left to play so you just know what work you have cut out for you.
“We’ll take a day off tomorrow to let the guys kind of recalibrate and then Wednesday we’ll focus on us. We’ll watch film, watch a lot of this and some stuff from some previous games and see how we can get better. It’s an ongoing process. I’m not distraught or not seeing it for what it is.
“It’s the NBA season, you’re gonna go through your ebbs and flows, you got teams that have been together that are gonna be clicking and you got some teams that are struggling, especially coming into the second and third quarters of the 82-game season. Those dog days are gonna set in pretty quickly after these holidays are over with and the biggest thing is to see what we can get better at day in and day out to make our team not just stronger but more consistent night in and night out.”
The Lakers are certainly not out of it when it comes to postseason and championship contention. Like Ham says, there remains plenty of time in the season to figure things out. But 16-15 is certainly not where the Lakers thought they would be through 31 games. And now, they have to quickly figure out how to get back on track.
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