After the disappointing exit in the last season, Los Angeles Lakers aimed to make a strong return in the 2022 NBA campaign. The take utilized their time off to make some changes in their squad and even hire a new head coach. However, nothing seems to be paying off for the Lakers up until this point. The team has lost all five of their opening encounters. Thus, many fans are questioning whether Darvin Ham\’s flawed strategy is the reason behind their performance.
Darvin Ham Discusses His Strategic & Lineup Plans
LA Lakers have had the worst possible start to their campaign in 2022. With their loss against the Timberwolves on Friday night, the \’Purple and Gold\’ have now lost all of their first five games. One of the reasons behind the Lakers\’ poor performance is that the key player Anthony Davis has been dealing with back injury concerns. Meanwhile, head coach Darvin Ham has acknowledged how Davis\’ injury has hurt the team.
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Anthony Davis missed games because of lower back pain. He was absent on Friday as the Los Angeles Lakers suffered a 111-102 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Due to Davis\’ absence, Ham was forced to make several lineup changes. LeBron James playing center was a choice he made on occasion. Ham even mentioned that he might keep doing it in the future.
Darvin Ham, the coach, is aware of the difficulty of replacing Anthony Davis. Ham made a very distressing statement before their matchup with the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday. Davis\’ absence due to lower back tightness leaves a significant gap in the center that LA must fill. According to Ham, it might require two or three players to fill the gaps created by Anthony Davis\’ absence from the squad.
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Lakers are hopeful that Davis will be ready when they return to the court on Sunday, though it is unclear when he can make his return. The other Lakers players will undoubtedly need to step up while they wait for Anthony Davis. The seasoned big man is a crucial component of their defense and offense. His average stats for a game are 24.0 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.8 steals, and 2.3 blocks. Darvin Ham stated that one guy could not compete with those figures alone.
Hollywood frequently used James at the five last year as a result of the roster\’s devastation by injuries. Both the team\’s outside shooting, and transition game saw an increase as a result, which improved matters offensively. But it ended up jeopardizing the team\’s defense. Last year, the Lakers\’ defensive rating placed them 21st.
On defense, the Lakers weren\’t too awful on Friday, limiting the Timberwolves to just 41.4 percent field goal shooting and 32.5 percent from beyond the arc. However, their offense is still pretty subpar. They had 22 turnovers, some of which were made at bad times, and only managed a 41.6 percent shooting percentage themselves.
