Health has been an issue for the Los Angeles Lakers and head coach Darvin Ham as several players have been in and out of the lineup at any given time so far this season.
Injuries was hardly an excuse for their poor effort in the loss to the Miami Heat on Wednesday night, though, as the Lakers looked lost on both ends.
Ham detailed the keys for the Lakers to improve, but at this point it doesn’t feel like much is working.
However, Ham also said that consistency will be hard to come by everyone returns from injury.
“We can’t find any consistency until we get healthy,” Ham said. “It’s as simple as that. I mean, we got to get healthy. We got to get healthy. And once you get healthy, guys got to get back in rhythm, and we got to find a cohesive unit, a total cohesive rotation that we can go with when you’re dealing with different guys being in and out of the lineup that frequently. It’s damn near impossible to find a rhythm.
“That’s just being real. There’s no slight on anybody. We pride ourselves on making sure we don’t send our guys out there to expose themselves to any major type of injury that’s what we stand on. But having said that, we got to get guys healthy.
“Those little nagging tweaks and whatever you have going on and we got to make sure that guys can not just be available but available at a high level, and so, we’ll get healthy, we’ll get better from it doesn’t feel so great, but it’s not supposed to. I know me for damn sure, I’ll speak for myself. I hate losing. I hate not being assertive, aggressive in terms of attacking each game.
“Whether I’m coaching, playing or whatever the case may be. And so, that definitely flows throughout my coaching staff and the organization and these players, we want to see how we can best help them and come up with solutions. We always strive to be solution-based.”
Ham also explained how it’s been harder to catch a rhythm with players missing games at different times. “Yeah, we think the multiples are more impactful than, you lose one of your big dogs, you got to figure out how to try to manage without them,” he said.
“But ‘Bron and A.D/ both have been playing phenomenal this year and continue to do so. And then when you have your key role players or key rotation players, this guy misses three or four, this guy misses three or four, and they’re happening like one right after the other, that’s what makes it difficult. Because we don’t want to run those guys in the ground.
“I’m cringing here, looking at the minutes that both ‘Bron and A.D. had to play tonight, as well as Austin [Reaves], and it’s tough, man. But that’s why we get paid what we get paid. We got to figure it out. Again, I’m disappointed, but I’ll be damned if I get discouraged. We’re gonna go to work and really take a deep dive as we’ve done here recently and continue to do and see what type of solutions we can help our players with but health and guys really coming out and being ready from the gate and not allowing a few mistakes to get us down.”
It feels like Ham is starting to run out of answers when asked how the team can get themselves out of this rut. Health has been a factor, but what’s more concerning is the roster just lacks the competitive fire and edge they showed earlier this season.
The injury excuse can only last so long, and that was evidence by both Anthony Davis and Austin Reaves downplaying it on the very same night that Ham said the team can’t win consistently until they’re healthy.
Darvin Ham explains balance of practicing and games
Some think that more practices could help the Lakers find their groove again, but Ham said that there’s balance between more practice time and games.
“It’s tough, man, because it just goes into my last answer. Health, you walking that fine line of trying to say you can be efficient with this watching film, doing walkthroughs, not exerting too much energy on a non-game day or the morning of a game day,” Ham said.
“So you can try to build your cup up as much as you can to have the maximum amount of energy that you’re going to have for the game. So it’s a duality that you’re constantly trying to manage.
“But having said that, again, we touched on it this morning, I think, for whatever reason, we had a couple of bad turnovers. And that may have brought our spirits down a little bit, who knows. But going back and watching the film, I don’t want to make an emotional statement or anything like that. I want to be on point with what I thought I saw. And so once we go back and watch the film, we’ll try to get better from this tomorrow.”
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