NBA
What did LA Lakers’ Darvin Ham and LeBron James say after the loss to the Nuggets?
Both LeBron and his coach Ham were honest when dissecting yet another resounding loss for the Lakers.
The LA Lakers continued their spiral into the depths of doom with a 105-112 loss against the Denver Nuggets, turning the already grey storm cloud above them black as they fell to a 0-3 scoreline in the series.
They are now on the brink of elimination from the NBA playoffs and pressure is building on coach Darvin Ham, who had to withstand “fire Darvin!” chants from the stands.
On three occasions across the games they have seen huge leads slip away, and it seems as though the aura that surrounds the historic side has faded into the background. “We’ve got to figure out how to get one (win) to stay alive,” Ham said after the defeat. “When you can’t get a bucket, they’re scoring, they’re on a run, it’s tough.”
‘Guys were missing shots that they’d normally make’
“They got loose they saw some go in” Ham added, “and it carried over into the third quarter. We had point blank shots and the guys were missing shots that they’d normally make, that’s how it goes. We have to keep the scoreboard moving.”
“There’s a lot of disappointment and we have to do a better job of staying focussed” he continued, “you have that disappointment and that can spill over into two or three possessions, we have to fight that.”
“You have to attack each possession, you have to be competitive and have competitive pride, move onto the next play. That’s what we’ve been good at”.
‘It’s win or go home, it’s all we have’
When asked about the emotional aftermath, he said: “it’s win or go home, it’s all we have, it’s all we should be concerned with: have competitive pride and try to put this thing together and give us [a win]”.
Ham was quizzed about what he liked about the opponents, to which he gushed: “They have a championship confidence. That unit has been together for a long time, they’ve been through wars together.”
“They have guys who step up and make plays. They do the little things... their guys come out and make plays for one another. When you have type of chemistry, its tough [to beat them]. They don’t settle and they impose their will on both sides; they may not be top five defence or whatever, [but] their systemic way that they cover with energy, is another example [of their strengths].”
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LeBron James opens up on defeat
“We spent so much energy in the first half building leads”, Lebron said, “and we came out in the third quarter with not much energy and lost track of the attention to detail in the first half”.
“The regular season and postseason are two different games, it totally changes and we have to be able to make that adjustment. Tonight was not one of those nights.”
“You have to give credit where credit is due”, James admitted about the Nuggets, “those guys make tough shot after tough shot and a lot of things happened in the third tonight... this team is well equipped, well coached, they do not have a weakness offensively. They have shot makers, playmakers, guys that can rebound and assist, they’re definitely one of the better teams that I’ve played against in my career.”
Aaron Gordon was philosophical after the third loss, remarking “I don’t think it is necessarily about our opponent. I think it’s about what we do and who we have as our guys in our locker room. We just focus on being great each and every night and let the results take care of itself.”
Reaves, meanwhile, was more critical, saying “our third quarters have been atrocious. If we want to find our way back into this one we have to be good in all four quarters but especially that third quarter.”
The Lakers have now lost 10 consecutive games against Denver, including the sweep in last season’s Western Conference Finals.