The Los Angeles Lakers fell to a shocking loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Christmas Day, as the Mavs overturned an 11-point deficit at halftime by outscoring the Lakers by 30 points in the third quarter en route to the win.
The collapse by the Lakers in the third quarter isn’t something new, and Darvin Ham decided to go for a bold strategy to remedy it. During the blowout, Ham decided to sub in a surprising 5-guard lineup that featured Austin Reaves as the center. He was flamed for this decision by fans during the game and decided to explain his thought process after the game.
Darvin on using a 5-guard lineup late: "Just trying to get more possessions in the game. … Any of those guys can get the defensive rebound and push it. … It's just trying to play faster at the end of the day."
— Lakers Daily (@LakersDailyCom) December 25, 2022
Wanting to push the pace on one of the slowest teams in the NBA makes sense until you realize the Mavericks are also one of the worst rebounding and interior defense teams in the NBA. They could have exploited a size mismatch with Thomas Bryant, but the same hadn’t worked earlier in the game.
Did Darvin Ham Make A Mistake?
Fans were mad after the loss and said that LeBron James was better off requesting a trade than continuing to put up with the incompetence around him. Coach Ham has done good things for the Lakers, but he is prone to mistakes that rookie head coaches make.
The Lakers can play as many guards as they want, but they know that they don’t have the shooting to truly benefit from it. They paid the price against the Mavs and are falling into a deep hole in Anthony Davis’ absence. Hopefully, the Lakers still have more fight in them to improve their record before the end of the season and challenge for the playoffs.
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