Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham has a bit of a logjam at the guard position with the way the roster has been constructed. It’s for a good reason, though, as D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves, Spencer Dinwiddie and Max Christie are all playing some of their best basketball. Russell and Christie have been especially impressive in recent weeks, leading Ham to have to find considerable minutes for all four players.
The player taking the most amount of time on the bench is, unsurprisingly, Christie. Although he has been showing out with his defensive prowess and high IQ, he has had to make way for more veteran and proven players, especially after Dinwiddie was brought into the mix right when Christie was dealing with an injury.
Ham spoke about Christie’s playing time and how hard it has been to get him involved in the rotation with consistency and not just playing situationally after he didn’t play in the first half against the Phoenix Suns.
“It’s tough. Because AD got into early foul trouble and it kind of altered our rotation because of the size they had out there,” Ham said. “So we try to have either Bron or AD on the floor at all times, if not both of them, so Bron had to run a longer stretch with AD getting in early foul trouble. It shifted the timing of some of our rotations early on.
“But we were able to get [Christie] in there in the second half and he came in and impacted the game in a positive way. But it’s just something we’re gonna have to figure out, that’s what we get paid to figure those things out. We’ll put our heads together. You come in with a plan, a well thought out plan, but things happen within the game and circumstances change. So that’s basically what happened in the first half.”
Christie played only five minutes on Sunday afternoon against the Phoenix Suns and was a plus-four during that stretch. This is only two games removed from getting 29 minutes with six assists against the Golden State Warriors. It seems that, for now, this is the way it’s going to be for Christie.
But Ham will need to tighten things up with the postseason push just around the corner. The hope is that he can find some consistency for both Christie and Dinwiddie with both playing really solid basketball.
Darvin Ham emphasizes need for Lakers to do little things
The Lakers coach spoke about the importance of focusing on the small details of the game and not focusing on who their opponent is or relying on the pure talent of their weapons.
“I know we got a bunch of weapons, but they’re useless if we don’t do the little things like sprinting hard when we get the ball in transition, not turning it over, maintaining spacing, making sure we get hits on screens to create an advantage and making the simple, easy play. To put it in detail, that’s what I’m talking about.”
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? It’s the best way to watch player interviews, exclusive coverage from events, participate in live shows, and more!