LOS ANGELES — Even Lakers coach Darvin Ham could acknowledge how Thursday night’s matchup against the Washington Wizards could appear to look.
And maybe his words also served as a cautionary message to his players as to why they couldn’t take their foot off the gas pedal following a thrilling comeback victory and with a matchup against the defending NBA champions waiting for them this weekend.
Sandwiched between their 21-point comeback victory over the Clippers the previous night and the high-profile matchup against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night, it would’ve been easy for the Lakers to overlook the lowly Wizards, one of the worst teams in the league.
It felt like that was the case for much of their 134-131 overtime win at Crypto.com Arena, their ninth win in the past 12 games and the Wizards’ 13th consecutive loss.
“It’s human nature, right? You got the Clippers [Wednesday] night, then you got Denver Saturday, and so this game would be considered sort of a trap game,” Ham said beforehand. “The way you avoid that is you try to figure out ways to sustain and be consistent at what you’re doing well and constantly look for ways to improve and you make it about yourself.
“Once you have a laundry list of things that you’re working on constantly trying to get better at so you can be successful in the big picture, that type of concentration on those things in yourself usually, you know, helps you avoid stumbling over a game in between two ‘bigger games in-conference games.’”
Even with acknowledging the Lakers were playing on the second night of a back-to-back, the urgency that Ham spoke about before tip-off wasn’t present for significant chunks on Thursday.
“It’s a tough game in scheduling in terms of coming out of a huge L.A. vs L.A. game, everything surrounding the game [Wednesday] night,” Ham said. “And against an especially young, fast team that has shooters, playmakers throughout their rotation.”
But Anthony…
Read the full article here
