Following their 14-point loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night, the Los Angeles Lakers have now lost four straight games and nine of their last 11 contests. Head coach Darvin Ham and the entire team is searching for answers to end this skid and turn the season around, but nothing has come to fruition just yet.
Anytime a team is going through a stretch like this where nothing seems to be working it can be discouraging, but Ham knows the Lakers can’t get down on themselves. He feels the team is ready to get out of this slump, but also knows they can not afford to pay attention to all of the outside noise.
“They’re just ready to be done with this. Like, done with this slide,” Ham said after the loss. “Obviously, no one wants to lose. It’s disappointing to lose, but we can’t make the mistake of getting discouraged. Like everybody is gonna nitpick at me, the staff, the players, the organization, whatever. We got to block out all that noise. Like, block out all the noise. Don’t pay attention to it.
“Focus on how we can be better. Whatever the mistakes are, whatever went wrong. Look at it, analyze it, and try to correct it. And that’s that’s it. You have to be solution-based, and you definitely have to be numb to whatever is going on outside. If they’re not Lakers, then don’t pay attention to it. Just lock in on us and try to see how we can be the best version of ourselves through our work, our daily work.”
Ham is right in that the Lakers can’t control what is being said about them in the media or anywhere else. The best thing is simply to focus on themselves and what they can control, and keep working to improve.
One area the Lakers must improve is their 3-point defense. The Grizzlies came into the game as the worst 3-point shooting team in the league, but knocked down 23 against the Lakers. Ham felt some of those tough shots made may have affected the Lakers, but insisted that the team must continue to fight through this rough stretch.
“I think it’s just whenever you play good defense, high-level defense, and guys able to knock down shots, especially guys that coming into the game hadn’t really shot the ball well for the opposing team, or played perfect defense for 22 seconds and that 23rd second the shot goes in, they hit it,” Ham added. “It is what it is. It’s the NBA, man. This is a marathon. And you have to look at the totality of the picture.
“I’m tired of people living and dying with every single game we play. It’s ludicrous, actually. It’s like, come on, man. This is a marathon, and we hit a tough stretch. It’s the same team that we played some high-level games a little while ago, and we just got to get back to that. We got to keep the fight though, we can not lose our fight.”
It wasn’t too long ago that the Lakers looked like one of the best teams in the NBA, but that seems like forever ago at this point. But Ham is right in that the team can’t lose its fight and must come together to pull themselves out of this slump.
Phil Handy viewed as possible replacement if Lakers fire Darvin Ham
Of course because of this slump, there are many rumors surrounding the job security of Ham and there are even some names being floated out as possible replacements should the Lakers make a change.
While it has been said that the Lakers are not at the point where they are ready to make a coaching change, should they get there, assistant Phil Handy is looking like the most likely replacement, which makes sense as it isn’t often franchises bring in an outside coach in the middle of the season.
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