Getty Darvin Ham, Lakers coach
The good Lakers news is that the team emerged from its In-Season Tournament victory in Las Vegas last week looking like a team that was hitting its stride and beginning to take shape as a true championship contender. The bad Lakers news is that they then flew to Texas for three games and have looked like a lottery team since, with three losses in four games, including Monday’s home loss to the Knicks. The strain of travel and an illness running through the team has been obvious, but don’t tell that to coach Darvin Ham.
The Lakers were somewhat better against a Knicks team that was playing on the road for the fourth time in six nights, but could not contain guards Immanuel Quickley and Jalen Brunson, who combined for 49 points. Former Laker Julius Randle had 27 points on 12-for-22 shooting.
The Lakers are a tired team and looked it. Ham had a harsh-but-fair message for his bunch, though: So what?
“The fatigue that’s already setting in at this part of the season, throw in the travel with the change of the time zones, all of that,” Ham said in his postgame press conference. “Just means one thing. Nobody’s gonna feel sorry for you.”
Darvin Ham on tonight’s Lakers shooting: “It’s a game of runs. All the looks we got tonight, I’ll take them every day of the week and twice on Sundays. You just got to continue being aggressive.”
Lakers News: IST Banner Hung & Knicks Loss Follows
Indeed, the Lakers have looked a step slow since winning the IST, the first of its kind. The team hung a banner to celebrate the win on Monday, but it looked like what it could really use was a few nights off. They’ll have to wait, though. The Lakers won’t get back-to-back nights off until after the play the Celtics on Christmas.
Again, Ham was not looking to blame the IST win for the Lakers’ recent slump, and he was encouraged by what he saw from his time in that span. But it did add a wrinkle to what is already a typically weary point of the season.
“I’m not one to use excuses,” Ham said. “The way we played was great during that time, we were whole. We had some unfortunate tweaks here and there, guys being out, unfortunate sickness or whatever. But we knew the games were interwoven and Las Vegas wasn’t a long flight for us. But it’s just obviously being within your normal schedule, it’s going to have an effect, be it positive or negative. I thought it was more positive than negative for sure.”
Darvin Ham: ‘It’s a Marathon’
The negative has been on display lately, though, with the Lakers having slipped badly on the defensive end. They’ve been fine offensively in their current four-game swoon—117.8 points on 49.5% shooting in that time—but they’ve struggled to contest perimeter shots. That’s a sure sign of fatigue. Opponents have shot 42.8% from the 3-point line in the last four games against the Lakers.
But the Lakers are not the only tired team in the NBA at this point. Typically, the buzz of the early season wears down from Thanksgiving to Christmas, and teams come back to life after the new year. The Lakers are in the throes of that, but so is everyone else.
“I was just talking with one of the Knick coaches, Johnnie Bryant, about that,” Ham said. “You know, they’ve been on a pretty tough stretch and got some stuff coming up. So, everybody goes through it, man. It’s a marathon of a league.”
So how do the Lakers handle it? By staying in the now, Ham said.
“It’s getting well,” Ham said. “Making sure our nutrition is on point, making sure our sleeping is on point, all of that. As well as the basketball stuff. But making sure our bodies are the position for us to do what we need to do on the court. Not thinking about the tournament we just won or four in five nights we gotta do in two weeks. Just focus on today, whatever is immediately in front of you.”