Lakers coach Darvin Ham made another change to his starting lineup Sunday night and indicated that the new unit might be together for a while, writes Khobi Price of The Orange County Register. With Cam Reddish unavailable for the second time in three games due to groin soreness, Ham replaced him with Rui Hachimura, who started alongside LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Taurean Prince and Jarred Vanderbilt.
“This lineup that you see, we’re going to stick with for the foreseeable future,” Ham told reporters prior to Sunday’s game. “[We’re] starting there, and hopefully everyone gets on the mend and we’ll try to get guys as much time as possible to get back healthy. [We’re] definitely trying to figure out a more consistent lineup as we proceed through this next portion of the season.”
Ham also tinkered with his starting five last week, swapping Vanderbilt in for D’Angelo Russell. A tailbone contusion that Russell suffered on Saturday forced him to miss Sunday’s game, and Ham indicated that he and Reddish are both considered day-to-day.
“It’s something we have to manage,” Ham said of Reddish’s condition. “There’s nothing structurally wrong with it, but there’s something that’s alive and well that he feels based on the workload.”
There’s more on the Lakers:
- Ham’s lineup plans could be disrupted by a calf strain that forced Hachimura to leave Sunday’s game after just eight minutes, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Ham said there’s a “high level” of concern about the injury, but he doesn’t want to jump to any conclusions before Hachimura undergoes further testing.
- James was critical of the NBA’s replay system after he was awarded two points instead of three on a late shot in Saturday’s loss at Minnesota, McMenamin states in a full story. James thought he had tied the game with 2.3 seconds left and was livid when officials ruled that his foot was barely on the three-point line. “What the hell do we got replay for?” James said afterward. “What do we have replay for if even the replay gets it wrong? It’s just like, who is a part of the replay center? Like, do we got robots in there making Teslas? Like, what’s going on?” The NBA confirmed the call Sunday in its Last Two Minutes Report (Twitter link).
- In his latest Substack column, Marc Stein looks at what the future might hold for James, who became the NBA’s only active 39-year-old when he celebrated his birthday on Saturday.
Lakers are a playoffs lock?
Top 6 seeds?
No…not a lock
1. Minnesota
2. Denver
3. Sacramento (as long as Fox stays healthy)
4. OKC
5. New Orleans (with or without Zion)
Now at #6 you got the Clippers
#7 Lakers
#8 Dallas
#9 Phoenix
#10 Golden State
So right now I don’t believe the Lakers are a top 6 team. I think injuries could make New Orleans or the Clippers fall out and the Lakers can move in. The wild card in this is Memphis. Ja Morant could go on a Ja Morant vengeance tour and get the Grizzlies right back in at least the play in.
In all fairness officials have been very poor this year. Watched a game the other night and they didn’t call 1 single travel call. Seen 4 in 1 quarter. Maybe the solution is add another ref on the court. Be consistent in don’t call ticky tack fouls on one team but not the other.
LeBron is complaining about that call specifically, but he’s making it public for future calls to go in his favor.
I remember Phil Jackson used to do this all the time, especially during the playoffs.
Although, towards the latter part of his career, LeBron has built up a reputation for being a whiner and a complainer. That being said, he was proven wrong, so it’ll probably go in one ear and out the other.
I tend to agree with his premise, though. Just like in football, they have the technology to get the calls correctly. They should be using it as efficiently as possible, but that isn’t being done. Several fans have witnessed their favorite team’s having obviously poor calls go against them in crunch time, and that shouldn’t happen.
At no point in time should almost everyone be able to tell a call is completely wrong, and the NBA not immediately correct it.
It does work for LeBron look at how many fouls calls are never called on him. Jokic did the same thing and went to the line 18 times the next game.
Nikola Jokić averages 6FTA per with usage rate of 30.1. That particular game was an outlier, maybe the Warriors should have tried a different strategy then Hack-a-Jok.
did you see what i posted. the next game after he complained he got all those foul calls. 1 of them he was NEVER touched under the basket on replay. Another he threw his shoulder into the defender knocking him backwards and called the foul on the defender. SMH
31 games played, 1,060 minutes, 33 personal fouls. Anyone who thinks the league doesn’t pander to LeBron is blind.
LeBron literally plays no-defense. They never run anything against him so there’s no one on one and that’s where fouls live.
Fans and players will always see calls going against their teams in crunch time because they’re emotional and that’s what they want to see. It’s been like that since the dawn of all sports.
fans and players will say nothing when they foul others or get gifts from the refs.
From my experience, there are educated fans and then there are delusional fanatics.
Neither will care when things go their way in games, but the educated fan will at least understand and acknowledge they got away with something. They’ll also just follow that up by laughing, or typically pointing to some random missed call and laughing saying it is even now…lol
Like you said though, it is typically only an issue when things aren’t going your way.
That’s kind of what I admired about Phil Jackson. At times, he’d complain or make a statement to the media before an important series even began.
I suppose I was wrong about it not working for LeBron. I don’t care to watch enough of their games to fully understand whether his whining works or not, but it is crazy all you typically hear about is that there’s always been an ongoing narrative he doesn’t get calls.
He’s so strong, refs don’t realize the shots and damage he takes is one example. Although, if he’s THAT much stronger, then why have we seen him time and time again get “pushed” or “knocked down” by smaller guys…
It isn’t exactly on topic, but I just find it funny is all..
The problem is that every game is ref differently than the last game. One game a travel will be called for taking steps but next game no traveling is called. Or one game they let them play not calling ticky tack fouls but next game they call everything. Home team gets all the calls while the travel team gets none. I don’t see this in other sports but just the NBA.
As a professional sport that generates billions of dollars they absolutely should worry about the game. It’s bad enough how soft the game has become since the 80s they might as well ya know call the game correctly. Let’s not turn this into another horrible NFL situation from a few years back rams vs saints final minute of the game a clear PI call against the rams that was never called on 4th down, cost the saints the game. After the game the refs called the saints and told them they messed up and blew the call. The rams went on to win the superbowl. Sports are being a joke no reason not to get every single call correct, get rid of these silly challenges and get refs who know how to call a game. Ridiculous
Again with the delsuional “game has become soft since the 80s” claim. Todays players are more skilled than ever before and they would run circles around 80s and 90s player. The defense of that era is so overrated and over-hyped. There were more fouls and free throws back then as compared to today. No amount of “defense” is stopping todays players.
You old heads are so boring. Get over it.
The game needs to rely more heavily on replays, and refs should make the final calls on those replays.
I say the game should rely more on replays because I think that the teams should be allowed to challenge no-calls in a timely manner as well.
Give teams another 1-2 no-call challenge, in addition to the 1-2 regular challenge system!
It’s time the nba took the power away from the third crew that’s on the court, and promote fair play and transparency. It’s sickening to watch how much the refs dictate the outcome, most often subconsciously – by assuming someone’s a better player hence he must’ve been fouled.
I think the refs should be doubled…
And have 3 at each game simply watching film…
No running or moving out of position or need to call for a challenge… They just watch and when there’s an incorrect call on the floor…
They reset the time and score and then make the correct call and we go from there…
Much more efficient…
Lebron’s comment is why I’m in favor of each team having 3 mini challenges a game: use it on obvious calls and the officials get 30 seconds once set up to make a decision. They wouldn’t always get the call right, but that’s also true even when they spend 5 mins reviewing a play. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
5 Forward starting lineup:
Lebron – SF
Prince – SF
Vanderbilt – SF
Rui – SF
AD – PF
Lebron – 6’9
Prince – 6’7
Vanderbilt – 6’8
Rui – 6’9
AD – 6’10
Excellent defensive lineup, lane will be really tough to get on. Rim protection and rebounding should be top notch.
Can overpower their way to the basket on offense. If lacking shooting, simply play hard defense and secure the boards, and run the break, as they are bigger than almost any team, yet can run and finish at the other end.
They can be attacked by the Nuggets (Jokic’s playmaking off the post), the Kings (Fox’s superior speed to drive and dish/kick out), the Clippers (gunned down from the perímeter), the Celtics (Porzingis Is just too tall and can’t be blocked, His turnaround from the post, he just shoots over).
The Mágic can matchup well, as they are a similar team, tall and physical, yet even younger and faster.
Warriors, if clicked in, can take deep threes from the Splash Bros.
It can contain the Bucks’ offense as they massively take up space in the lane, if Dame doesn’t shoot it down.
They could make life harder on the Sixers and Embiid.
They can give the Suns trouble, as making them even more dependant on KD and Booker.
Final 4 minutes of every game should be watched in HQ and they should buzz the ref if they need time to confirm a call. We can’t do this the whole game, the game needs flow and it needs to end in a timely manner. Final 4 minutes of the game directly affects the outcome.