The Los Angeles Lakers are looking to turn things around amid a nightmare start to the 2022-23 season.
The Lakers own the worst offense in the NBA after losing four straight games to open the new campaign. They are the only team that scores less than a point per possession. The Purple and Gold also shoot just 41.6% from the field and 22.3% from downtown, ranking 29th and 30th in both, respectively.
As adversity continues to be the theme of the Lakers’ season, L.A. fittingly hosted Hollywood superstar Will Smith to talk about togetherness and gratitude in challenging times ahead of the 110-99 loss to the Denver Nuggets:
Huge thank you to Will Smith, who joined the team to discuss strength through togetherness, and practicing gratitude in times of great challenge. All themes in his forthcoming masterpiece film, Emancipation.
? | Lakers Genius Talk pic.twitter.com/H2Pt0bmBhr
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) October 26, 2022
Smith’s visit was part of the Lakers’ “Genius Talk” series, aimed to inspire the players through stories from successful individuals and help them broaden their interests beyond the basketball court. The program was launched in 2017-18 with previous guests including Dwayne Johnson, Kendrick Lamar, Allyson Felix, Denzel Washington and Elon Musk, among others.
Smith stars in the historical action thriller “Emancipation,” which will premiere in early December before becoming available to stream via Apple TV+ on Dec. 9. The movie, directed by “Legacy” producer Antoine Fuqua, follows the story of a runaway slave, Peter, as he navigates the swamps of Louisiana to escape plantation owners that nearly murdered him.
“Emancipation” is Smith’s first movie since he infamously slapped Chris Rock on stage at the 2022 Oscars.
Darvin Ham wants consistency and better defensive rebounding from Lakers
Following the loss to the Nuggets, head coach Darvin Ham said the Lakers need more consistency and improve their defensive rebounding as they look to register their first win of the season.
Just like we’re defending at a high level, we have to keep our competitiveness at a high level at all times,” Ham said.
“And that’s just doing the little things. It’s not solely based on making shots, although that would help. It’s just based on, again, being consistent with your principles. And the defensive rebounding thing is always, I think — he who controls the glass usually controls the game. So that’ll always be an element that I want to just be superior at.”
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