The Los Angeles Lakers suffered an embarrassing 120-101 loss to the Orlando Magic on Saturday night and after the game, head coach Darvin Ham blasted his players.
“You can’t scheme rebounding,” Ham said when asked if the rebounding issues had anything to do with the scheme. “You gotta wanna get the damn ball, plain and simple… There’s no play I can draw up to get more rebounds. There’s no play I can draw up to have more guys there.”
(starts at 2:46 mark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp78bYsgUFA
The 50-year revealed that he has shown the players clips where the Lakers greatly outnumber the opponent near the rim, but still end up giving up the offensive rebound. Ham says it is something that the Lakers need to continuously work on.
At the end of the day, rebounding comes down to effort. The players have to have that desire to go get the ball and the Lakers didn’t seem to have it here. They were outrebounded 50-41, and the Magic got 19 offensive rebounds compared to 10 for them.
Orlando turned that into a massive 36-15 advantage in second-chance points and, more often than not, teams will win when the disparity is that big. While Anthony Davis hauled in 13 rebounds and LeBron James had 9, backup big man Christian Wood only had 2 in 29 minutes.
Wood is capable of doing a lot more on the glass and had come into this game averaging 7.8 rebounds per game. The Lakers need him to put in that effort to be consistent in that regard.
GM Rob Pelinka Wanted Defense And Rebounding To Be The Lakers’ Identity
The Lakers made that incredible run to the Western Conference Finals last season on the back of their defense and rebounding. In the lead-up to this 2023-24 campaign, GM Rob Pelinka wanted the Lakers to double down on defense and rebounding as their identity.
Pelinka believed it would be key to having success and to his credit, did build a roster along those lines. Just like Ham, he’d have been disappointed with what he saw from the players on the glass against the Magic. They both would be hoping that this group responds strongly the next time they step out on the court.
The Lakers Dropped To 0-3 On The Road
This loss to the Magic also meant the Lakers have now failed to win any of their first three road games. They were comfortably beaten by the Denver Nuggets in the opener and lost to the Sacramento Kings in overtime prior to this.
While you could excuse losing to the Nuggets and the Kings on the road, a blowout loss in Orlando is not acceptable. We’ll soon find out if this is going to be a theme moving forward, as their next three games are away from home too.
This four-game road trip will see them take on the Miami Heat, Houston Rockets, and Phoenix Suns. If they fail to win all of those as well, then it might be time to sound the alarm.
We saw a great example in the Golden State Warriors last season of a team that just never got going on the road. If that does end up being the case for the Lakers this time around, they won’t be serious contenders for the title, just like how the Warriors really weren’t in 2022-23.
We sincerely appreciate and respect you as a reader of our site. It would help us a lot if you follow us on Google News because of the latest update.
Thanks for following us. We really appreciate your support.
