I’m sure a lot of Laker fans feel the same way.
The Lakers lost a game they should have won on Friday night, and that didn’t sit well with anybody.
When you give up 134 points and allow your opponent to shoot over 55% from the field, you probably aren’t going to win a game. When you turn the ball over 17 times, and shoot less than 70% from the free-throw line, you probably aren’t going to win a game. And yet, the Lakers had a chance to win, but Dennis Schroder wasn’t able to hit an open corner three, and the Lakers fell to 13-19.
After the game, head coach Darvin Ham wasn’t too happy with his team’s performance.
“This one pisses me off a little bit,” Ham said. “We constantly talk about, our team as a staff, self-inflicted wounds. Not protecting the paint, not holding teams to one possession after we played our tails off defensively — to give up second and third opportunities to them on the offensive glass. And then, once we get the ball, not being disciplined with our running habits, turning the ball over…We have to do a much, much better job, again, of maintaining competitiveness.”
It’s hard to argue with anything Ham said. At the end of the day, it’s the little things that help you win basketball games — and the Lakers didn’t execute any of them. They were outrun and outplayed in their home stadium by a much inferior opponent, and because of that, left with a very disappointing loss.
Hopefully Ham can have his guys ready for Sunday, when they play the Mavericks at 11:30 am on Christmas Day The last thing they need is to get embarrassed on the national stage, so hopefully they can get their act together.
