The Los Angeles Lakers looked like they were on their way to tying up their first round series against the Denver Nuggets in Game 2.
The Lakers went up by as much as 20 points, but the Nuggets came roaring back and completed their improbable comeback after Jamal Murray hit a jumper over Anthony Davis.
Now down 0-2 going back to Los Angeles, head coach Darvin Ham and his staff will need to find ways to overcome Denver and extend the series.
When asked what his focus is for Game 3, Ham brought up the Lakers’ pace as an area of improvement. “Just the pace,” Ham said. “The pace has to continue. You build a lead, you can’t go to playing slow and try to play the clock game. Just have to stay aggressive, stay organized, understand where you’re trying to go with the ball, be aggressive to the paint, things we’ve been preaching all year. But to slow down and they’re gaining the momentum now just because you’re slow, we’re out of rhythm. So we just got to figure out a way to maintain pace.”
Ham added that Los Angeles needs to be better about adjusting to Denver’s adjustments and convert on the open looks they get.
“I think it’s a little bit of both,” he said. “To the first part of your question, again we talk about maintaining our pace. That’s the thing, it’s not just running up and down fast and throwing up a quick shot. It’s just doing things with a sense of urgency, whether it’s in the full court and being disciplined with our running habits and then in the halfcourt, creating an advantage through our separation, running pick-and-roll situations, actually getting a hit and whoever is handling the ball, really getting pressure on the paint to score or to make the pass.
“The second part, it’s just like you have to be careful. You have to understand why you failed at something. It’s not just like OK, you failed, let’s scratch that whole plan and go this way. No. You have to understand everything at length, that’s the great thing about film. It reveals once you settle down and get the emotions out, it’s a game of emotions and then you go back and watch the film and you’re able to make an intelligent decision on whether to stay the course or change things completely. I think it’s never totally one or the other, it’s a little bit of both.”
While Anthony Davis believes the Lakers go stretches where they don’t know what they’re doing, Ham disagreed and said that he thinks the coaching staff has kept them organized. Regardless, Ham, Davis and the rest of the roster need to figure out a way to get on the same page if they hope to end their losing streak against the Nuggets.
Magic Johnson was too devastated to tweet after Lakers’ Game 2 loss
Magic Johnson normally tweets his reaction to Lakers games, but he admitted that he was too devastated to after the Game 2 loss.
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