The Lakers lost their 11th consecutive game to Denver on Thursday night and are now one game away from being swept out of the postseason by the Nuggets for a second straight season. As Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes, it’s hard to blame Los Angeles’ two stars for the Game 3 loss — LeBron James and Anthony Davis combined for 59 points on 26-of-43 (60.5%) shooting to go along with 21 rebounds and 12 assists.
“We’ve been — me and this guy [Davis] have been playing together for six years,” James said. “We’ve been to the mountaintop. We’ve been close to the mountaintop. We’ve played a lot of games. We know what it takes to win. We know what it takes to win a championship and how damn near perfect you got to be. That’s not like something that’s so crazy to obtain.”
While James expressed that he and Davis are confident in their ability to deliver big games when it matters most, he didn’t say the same about the rest of the Lakers, McMenamin observes. Austin Reaves had a solid night (22 points on 8-of-17 shooting), but the rest of the Lakers besides LeBron and AD combined for just 24 points and shot 10-of-30 (33.3%) from the floor, including 2-of-16 (12.5%) on three-pointers.
Asked if the Lakers’ were overwhelmed by the Nuggets’ execution, James replied, “You’d have to ask the individuals that question and see how they feel. It’s hard for me just to be like, ‘This is what I think that guy feels.’ … I can’t do that. I’m not a mind reader. I don’t know.”
Here’s more on the Lakers:
- A disastrous performance against the Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals last spring hurt D’Angelo Russell‘s stock a little as he prepared to enter free agency. The same thing may be happening this year. Russell went scoreless on 0-of-7 shooting on Thursday and declined to speak to reporters after the game, according to McMenamin. Russell, who is now averaging 12.0 PPG on 32.6% in the first round, holds a player option worth $18.7MM for the 2024/25 season.
- Davis told reporters after Game 2’s loss earlier this week that the Lakers “have stretches where we don’t know what we’re doing on both ends of the floor.” Those comments were interpreted as a shot at the coaching staff and didn’t sit well with some people in the organization, according to Jared Greenberg of TNT Sports. “I can tell you from speaking to people within the Lakers’ organization, they were upset – and disappointed, quite frankly – by AD’s comments,” Greenberg said during an NBA TV appearance on Thursday (Twitter video link). As Sam Amick of The Athletic notes, when asked about Davis’ comments on Wednesday, head coach Darvin Ham told reporters he chalked them up to frustration and that he would “agree to disagree.”
- With the Lakers on the brink of elimination, Ham is on the hot seat in Los Angeles, according to Bill Plaschke of The L.A. Times, who notes that some home fans began a “fire Darvin” chant during the fourth quarter on Thursday. Plaschke adds that Ham has been out-coached by Michael Malone during the first round so far, which has been evident by the way the teams have adjusted at halftimes. The Nuggets have outscored the Lakers by a total of 31 points in the third quarters of games, per McMenamin; L.A. has outscored Denver by 11 in the other nine quarters.
Saturday will be Darvin Ham’s final day as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Hallelujah
You can’t cheat the game to the degree you have and not expect karma, Brawny Sensation. It’s best if you walk away this summer before everyone ultimately sees you for what you are – a good player with epic coach-killing and team dysfunctionality qualities – why he never could play for just one team – whose own insecurities and delusional thinking caused him to rely on performance-enhancing substances perhaps more so than any professional basketball player to come before him.
Karma huh? If you believe in karma then with just one look at the life LeBron’s lived you’d have wonder if he was a Bodhisattva in a past life.
The dude’s a billionaire before he turned forty. He has no public scandals. He’s one of the best to ever play and at 39 years old still one of the very best in the game.
Team dysfunctional qualities? What does that even mean? I do know he’s won championships with three different teams.
If you believe in Karma then it’s obvious why he’s as successful as he is. He’s donated millions of and raised several million dollars more for charity. He started out with donating bikes and backpacks to students and now He’s moved in to funding after school programs and a school. That school also provides adults resources for GED training and financial literacy. His foundation provides rent free housing when needed and is in the process of building additional units of affordable housing.
Now as for you, you need to work on envy and hate man. Karma doesn’t look to kindly on those two particular traits.
The harder he lies, the harder he ‘roids up to stay relevant, the harder he tries to make others think anyone but himself is the reason for losing, the harder he continues to sabotage a once proud franchise, the harder he falls. Your hero isn’t all that he is chalked up to be.
Its probably time for some fresh air Dud
Who isn’t enjoying the Lakers getting handled like the red headed step child. Pretty funny the clippers are now the better team in la. Beat LA!
Nuggets OWN the Lakers. Who’s your daddy?
The Lakers are definitely getting beaten down but it will NEVER be a Clipper town until they win at least something. Anything. Get to the finals, anything. They are definitely not there yet. There’s still the clippers.
Nobody is beating the Nuggets. I said that at the beginning of the season. Lakers are just a average team. Nuggets stay healthy they will be the champs again.
I think Boston could take them in a 7 game series
Agree but Denver can play two types of games, they can get out and run with any run and shoot team, but also can get in a real physical game. Boston may hang with them, but would have to be able to play both ways to match Denver. Still take Denver in 6.
Problem is Boston doesn’t always show up. A healthy 76ers if Embiid was 100% would be the match up. Knicks defense could be problems for Nuggets. OKC athleticism and T-wolves can match up with height. Still Nuggets are the team to beat.
@steveurkel Boston still hasn’t figured out how to beat Miami. You have them beating Denver??? The same defending champion Denver that is up 3-0 on LeBron and AD??? The same Boston team that won 64 regular season games, but just lost to Miami at home by 10, with Miami missing Jimmy Butler, Terry Rozier and Josh Richardson???? That Boston team???
I guess sillivan agrees with you
So realistically…. what can the Lakers get for DLo, Rui, and Gabe? Those are the 3 trade candidates this offseason.
They are not getting a star for those 3. D’lo value is very low. Vincent and Rui have expensive contracts to trade. The best they can get is somebody want to get rid of a big contract.
Zach Lavine
Nothing that helps them win. Best scenario, LBJ opt in and trade him. Bron collecting the Max on a new contract with trade clause won’t help them at all, only helps James. Oh yeah, don’t forget about Bronny.
The hourglass is running out of sand for the LA Lakers again, this is just not a solid team. They have had a fairly healthy season, with Davis playing over 70 games this season, Lebron being Lebron but after that the rest of the roster is not real quality. Point guard is so up and down during the season and really down right now, time for a change there. The rest of the roster need a upgrade, just too many of the same type of player, no role players that enjoy their role and know their role. As far as a HC still out on that, Denver is just at a level that maybe one team can compete against maybe Boston. Right now, it is Denver’s championship to lose.
Denver on a level above the Lakers….all five of their starting lineup are well rounded as far as shooting, ball handling, rebounding, and defense
They don’t shoot the 3 good enough and they dont win the battle of the boards in order to get second chance points. It’s a recipe for disaster.
If your not good enough at shooting you need to play AD at the 4 and have another centre in the game in order to win more boards and get second chance points. This would also clog the paint of defence making it harder for them to score on the inside and force them into taking more threes or deep two’s. In which case your guards need to atleast play some defence and make it tougher for them. Cause end of the day if your not providing on offence and not providing on defence you may aswell not even be playing.
Christian Wood is a career 14 points per game and 7 rebounds per game centre/power forward that shoots 37% from 3. 2021-22 on the Houston Rockets he was their go to scorer and put up 18-10 shooting 39%. The fact Darvin Ham hasn’t found a real role for him all season is crazy to me.
Not only can he shoot the 3 and rebound well he also doesn’t turn it over much and doesn’t foul.
Yes the defence is lacking but you’ve got AD playing beside him who’s one of the best defenders in the league.
All I can say is after this series it’s goodbye Hamm and goodluck LeBron trying to reassemble the roster yet again
Top 10 in 3 pt% that had 3 of the starters (Lbj DLO Rui) shoot over 40% and another in Reaves whoes an above avg 3 pt shooter . Non issue
They need a perimeter defender and yes someone who can help on the boards
5/27 yesterday, 13/30 game 2 which is great but got out rebounded and have 6 more turnovers in what was a 2 point loss and 8/29 in game 1.
So over 3 games they have been poor shooting the 3 and poor rebounding and which is what I’m saying. I don’t care for regular season stats. I’m saying Ham needs to see Dlo ain’t hitting and make adjustments (double bigs)
Well who didn’t see this coming?
Rich Paul and any number of espn talking heads.