The Los Angeles Lakers finally got their chance to prove they could hang with the reigning champion Denver Nuggets when they faced off in Game 1 of their first-round series.
Los Angeles got off to a strong start, building a 12-point lead in the first half. However, as has been the case in every game between the two teams, Denver stormed back and took control in the second half to take Game 1.
Head coach Darvin Ham’s game plan seemed to sputter once the team fell behind, and he explained specifically where the game turned.
“I think it started at the end of the second, at the end of the first half,” Ham said. “Them going on that 22-11 run, whatever it was, it’s tough. A championship team is not gonna beat themselves too often. They may start off slow, miss some shots here or there, turn the ball over every now and again, but you can’t beat yourself. We got to step up.
“One glaring thing was those guys got 15 offensive rebounds for 18 points. You can’t allow them to get multiple possessions. You got to try as hard as you can as a group to gang rebound and hold them to one possessions. They got guys that if they see the ball go in once, it’s gonna go in twice. Obviously Murray was out there by himself, he’s a handful when he’s out there with Jokic, they’re a handful together. Jokic is gonna make every smart basketball play known to mankind so us, we just have to be more disciplined, more perfect.”
Despite the loss, Ham remained confident that the Lakers could come back in the series. “I truly believe this is still gonna be a hard-fought series. Everybody is gonna lose their mind over one game, and give them their credit, they held serve, they’re a good home team, tough to beat in general but they’re really good at home.
“It’s a matter of going back to the drawing board. We did a lot of good things out tonight. Just that one glaring element of rebounding that we got to figure out.”
One game doesn’t make or break the purple and gold, but Los Angeles and Ham will need to play much cleaner basketball in Game 2 if they want to tie up the matchup.
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