Kyrie, AD, Kleber, Reaves, Kidd, Ham x James Worthy React To Lakers/Mavs | March 17, 2023

Let's hear from my head coach Darvin Ham, he's speaking with the media. Darvin, just starting with the last possession, obviously you guys flushed the ball out of Kyrie's hands. What did you see from there? I mean, he got pretty much a line drive pass over to Klaber, but, you know, he started torching us a little bit down the stretch, thus our decision to start blitzing him and double teaming him. And, you know, we made it difficult, tried to be as active as possible, and, you know, he found an open guy. I mean, we didn't get there fast enough, but A.D. had a, you know, a last minute outstretched contest. But, you know, it was tough. It was like Indiana all over again. But at the end of the day, you know, the NBA players are a highly talented elite skill level. But, yeah, that makes it more of an emphasis in why you really have to control what you can control. And I thought we weren't disciplined at certain stages. We fouled, had some really bad fouls, you know, fouling shooters. And also, you know, we did the job we wanted. We seek out to do every game, and that's win the free throw line. We got 31 attempts, but you got to make more than 19. We make our free throws. We're probably not having this conversation. Just to follow up real quick, down the stretch offensively too, you guys had them at five and were getting stops. What did you think of the shot quality? I mean, whether it's Dennis, Austin, D-Load, I mean, they made those shots. You just got to trust your players and trust that they're going to make plays and be aggressive. And sometimes, you know, it's a make or miss league. And those same looks, you don't even mention them when they go in. And I've seen those same looks go in. But, you know, I thought maybe the ball could have hopped around a little bit better. I thought we were trying to do the right thing and play the right way. But, again, you know, we were aggressive, thus the 31 free throws. But you have to make more than 19. And, you know, you can't foul shooters. We had some really bad fouls throughout the game. But, again, we can't feel sorry for ourselves, man. As tough as this loss is, we got to pick ourselves up, wipe off the dust and get ourselves out of the dirt, refill our cups up and come out and try to get a win on Sunday. Darvin, you had some individual efforts from, you know, Wen Yin or Austin or Dennis when you went to them in the second half energy-wise. But considering the circumstances, did you feel like it was good enough to start the game or to start the third quarter? Yeah, we had these segments, man, these lows that we tend to go through where, you know, we're not getting stops. We're not finishing our defensive possessions with rebounds. We turn the ball over in some of those segments. So we just have to buckle down and tighten up, you know, and just not be in such a hurry. You know, I don't think anything is selfishly motivated by what you see on either side of the ball. I just feel like sometimes we get to going fast. You know, we give our guys a lot of freedom. Sometimes they take opportunities that they think are there that are not really there. But that's why you go back and watch film and you try to tighten it up. And, you know, as long as there's time to play, we're going to try to correct our mistakes and sustain any and everything that we're doing well. What did you like about what Wen Yin gave you guys in the fourth quarter? Just his energy. You know, he has a great nose for the ball. He's on 11 rebounds. He tries to defend. He tries to protect the rim. It's just a difficult foul call at the end there on the verticality. I don't know what else they want these players to do, man, in terms of defending the rim. And, you know, it's – I don't know. But he's just a spark plug. Another one of our spark plugs, his size, his ability to run up and down the floor, clean up, you know, loose balls and get offensive rebounds, put backs, really defends well. And, you know, he showed all of that tonight. That's why we stay with him. Anything else? Thanks, Coach. Thank you. Yeah. You know, I think when you talk about there's, you know, everybody who participated helped us win. Theo is going to go unnoticed. He didn't play until the last, you know, two possessions. And just understand where we have been here in the past of taking the ball out. That's not an easy job. And everyone knew that we were going to Kai and he still got the ball to him with two guys on him. And then Kai did everything to explore, to get a shot, and then the trust to be able to throw it to Maxie who took a big shot and made it. But just the patience, the trust, to execute late. We got a great look and Maxie stepped up and made the last six points. Yeah. Yeah, I think when you look at the we could have took a timeout, but in the flow of things I always felt that we can get, you know, that's the best shot we can get. And we got three free throws out of that with A.D. Falun, Maxie. So, again, Maxie stepping up, making the free throws. And then to be able to A.D. misses a free throw to give us a chance to tie it with a two, knowing Kai wanted to go for the win and with the double team he had to give the ball up. And that's just trust with his teammates. And Maxie was at the right place at the right time. Just a little quick question about trust. How have you seen that grow? Yeah, you know, I think a lot of times with trust you have to go through, you know, it's easy to go through the good times and everybody trusts. But to lose some games, you know, to be tested, that trust is also going to be tested. And if you can stay together, good things will turn if you still believe that. And Kai and Luca preached that in the locker room, that we just got to continue to stay together and keep playing. Good things will happen. And you can see that here on this road trip, not just tonight, but in San Antonio too. Yeah, you talk about the injury, but I just will talk about something that's a little bit sooner at the end of the San Antonio game, you know, just to be able to feel like he let his teammates down. But his teammates picked him up. And tonight he picked up his teammates by knocking down the three free throws and then being able to knock down that three. Again, Kai and Maxie are going to get a lot of the attention, but Theo did two things. He got the ball into Kai and then he rolled, which I think took A.D. away from Maxie. And so that left Kai with Maxie, and he did the hardest part, and he made the shot. How this would go with the rest of the team? Maxie just said, character and redemption after they gave us. How would this go? Yeah, I think, you know, that's the beauty of this team is internally, you know, they believe and they talk and trust one another and good shot. Keep, you know, taking that shot, and they truly believe in one another and they believe that we can do something special. It's just we've lost some games and we're being tested to see if we can, you know, if we truly believe that we can be a good team. Our health has kind of gotten in the way with that too, but that's who Kai is. Kai is a true believer of energy and connection, and, you know, you used the word redemption. Maxie, you know, felt he took it hard that he, you know, in San Antonio that he could have just thrown it in and we wouldn't have had to go overtime. He felt like he let his teammates down. His teammates picked him up, and then again, the trust tonight to come to him with the game winner, that just shows how special those guys are in that locker room. And, you know, Kai says it best. You know, redemption is a beautiful thing. It's not tit for tat. You know, I think it's, you know, we learned from that. We were up big. We were up again here tonight. They made a run. We stayed connected. We executed down the stretch when we had to. And then, you know, guys are tired. Josh is tired. You know, he's playing a lot of minutes. But, you know, everybody's giving their all. And as we get healthy, I think that's just going to make us that much stronger. And hopefully we get LD back here soon, and then we can start to get a rhythm here down the end of the season. Thanks. Kai Lee and Maxie will be next. Austin, I suppose there are a lot of different places you could focus on. Some of the early effort and energy, the missed free throws late, some of the lack of execution. What's the thing that kind of you thought was the biggest factor? And how much does that hurt in a situation like this with the standings where they're at in the West? Every game you lose as a competitor hurts. Obviously, you know, with what it is right now, where we're at, where they're at, you know, it's trying to fight to get in the playoffs. You know, it sucks to say the least. But, you know, 61 from the free throw line, it's not good. You know, if we make 25 of those, you know, it's a little bit less stressful down the stretch. You know, I missed three, which is inexcusable. So, you know, that's the main thing. And then, like you said, energy-wise, just got to figure out, you know, something to, you know, propel us, you know, up. Austin, pretty unconventional for you guys' lineup with Winnie and AD playing together. And then, you know, you, D'Angelo, and Dennis. What was working with that lineup? And what do you think it did for the blitzes you were putting on Kyrie? Yeah, I mean, I thought Winnie did, you know, phenomenal. Being a pest, you know, kind of at the 4-5 spot, you know, they do a lot of delay action to get, you know, Kyrie downhill. But he was really handsy getting deflections, kind of interrupting that. And then on the other end, you know, being a beast on the glass. So that's kind of what, you know, the feel was, you know, for me at least. And I thought he was bringing us a lot of energy, a lot of effort. And, you know, we just stuck with it and, you know, put ourselves in a good position. Austin, you guys have been pretty successful with this group so far. I mean, there have been tough losses and stuff like that, but nothing quite like this. What was the mood like in the locker room afterwards? And kind of how do you think this group will handle it? The mood is obviously down. I mean, just because you lose a tough one and one that we, you know, really wanted, one that we needed. We need them all from here on out. But, you know, we're a group of competitors. So that's obviously why I'd be worried if the mood wasn't like that. Just because, you know, if you don't care about losing, you know, games that are really meaningful, then, you know, what's the point of playing? So I thought the mood is exactly what it should have been. You know, and we'll go in tomorrow, watch a lot of film, and, you know, learn from our mistakes. I think we've bounced back pretty good with this group after losses. I don't know if we've had back-to-back losses until now, but, you know, we've got to figure out, you know, how to move on and, you know, play the next game. Austin, you know, just thinking about that Pelicans game where it seemed like every three-point shooter was on and then the last two games you guys have just struggled for that same kind of outside shooting. What do you think kind of turns that faucet on and off for you guys in terms of the three-pointers? I think it's just, you know, the nature of the game. You make shots, you miss shots. Obviously you always want to make shots, but that's not the case. 25%, obviously not good. I think we as a team need to be more, you know, we need to shoot more threes. You know, 20 is, eh, I mean, but that's the game today. So I think we need to get a little more up, and, you know, I think we've got a lot of guys that can shoot the ball. So it's just going to, you know, once you see one go through the net, you see B's hit one, you know, it brings energy, and then Troy will hit one, and then it's just a trickle-down effect. And that's where I thought that in New Orleans that, you know, kind of got everybody going early. But it's the nature of the game. You know, we want, you know, people to be aggressive shooting the ball even if you're not shooting it great at the moment. Just keep shooting, and we have confidence in that. Appreciate y'all. Got those standings. You can go up three spots or down three spots, win or lose. It's nuts, guys. Luca goes out. Kyrie doesn't play for a few games. Dallas is struggling. They find a way to beat the Spurs. Kyrie plays tonight. They jump all the way to the six on that Warriors loss. The Warriors really struggling on the road. They lost to the Hawks. I mean, big game. You look at that. There's only 11 games left. It's just going to keep flip-flopping. If you could go on a run, you get three, four, five games in a row. I know it's harder. Easier said than done. That's who's going to separate. I mean, I don't know what would motivate you more. Knowing where you are in the standings and knowing. I mean, I don't know if they get the information during the game, but you're at home against a somewhat depleted Mavericks team. I mean, you've got to mentally, collectively have a message that you've got to win that game. And 19 for 31, that could have done it right there in addition to some late-game mess-ups, some fouls. But this is a tough loss, man. Houston was tough enough without AD, 78 points in the paint. But to come home and not be able to regroup when you had the game right there for the four points up, it's a tough one. D. Fish, I know we've talked a lot about this, but the spotlight is bright here at the end of the season on these games because of where they are in the standings and because of how this season started, 2-10, and how they've been trying to fight. They're just a game under .500 finally, first time in 414 days, and they're playing Houston. You lose that game, then you get another gift tonight with the three losses, and you're thinking, here's another opportunity. So you don't want that season to end going, man, we had so many opportunities. Like AD said, you control your own destiny. Yeah, which can get heavy. Yeah. I think we were talking in the conference room about they've had to work really, really, really hard just to win games. And then when you think about since the first half in New Orleans, they've been playing from behind almost in Houston, playing from behind, trying to catch up to the Rockets. Tonight, having to always play catch up in a sense to the Mavericks, that's just a tough position to be in in this league, playing from behind throughout the course of the night. And so along with the pressure of the standings, and they're hearing it from everywhere, social media, the phone, you cut on the television. That's the questions that are coming from the media. So there's just a lot to manage. That's why you really can't. They shouldn't be watching standings or paying attention to this at all. Two games up, two games back, et cetera. Your energy, effort, urgency, focus, game plan, discipline, all that stuff should be the same. Long season, there are going to be some nights where you aren't yourself. But for the most part, you shouldn't waver based on standings. A.D., what's just kind of going through your mind right now with this one? A tough loss. The Rockets were going on a tough loss. When it comes to that final position defensively as a team, obviously Kyrie requires so much attention. What did you kind of see after that? The seven seconds he dribbled almost the whole clock out. Me just reading him, knowing that he's probably going to take the last shot. He goes into his actual shooting motion and just comes down with it. Doesn't shoot it. So when he goes up and kind of pulled me in, I was going for the rebound. I think he was shooting it and made it pass to Kiebler. Makes the shot. We know you said you hold yourself to hit the free throw line. How do you process missing one in a close situation? Yeah, that was tough. Try a little right. I've been up three at that point. Still kind of processing it. I mean, when you think about it, up three. Even if he makes a three over time. It's a tough loss. What about the positioning on the closeout in the previous play? Obviously, Kiebler gets the foul line. How did you see that play kind of develop? Just tried to contest on the side. You know, I'm smart. I've never really jumped straight in front of people. I just jumped so far. I still probably clipped him a little bit. I haven't looked at it. But I just tried to really jump on the side of him. I actually think he shot it a little left, honestly. But, you know, a couple of bad easily plays on me. AD, just in general, this team has bounced back pretty well from losses. What do you kind of feel like you'll take out of this one, even though I'm sure it feels pretty tough right now? We'll have to go back and look at the film. Things can get better for Sunday. But fought hard to get back into the game. That was a tough one. Especially when everyone is losing. Got to be able to win basketball games, whether it's at the free throw line, myself, or making the right read defensively. But this is a tough one. We'll look at it tomorrow and get ready for Sunday with a must win. As one of the leaders, will you tell the guys how you guys regroup from this and then move forward to Sunday's game? What did I tell them? Yeah, will you tell the guys? Oh, what did I tell them? Yeah, what will you tell the guys? Well, I don't know. I mean, I already came in and told them the last play was my fault. But, like I say, watch the game tonight, watch the film tomorrow, shoot some free throws. I mean, there's nothing we can do about it, to be honest. It happened. Our focus is now Sunday, trying to get a win against Orlando. But, you know, this one is tough. That's the way it ended. And also, I think other teams lost. I think in this game, with a win, would have put us in seventh. So, just tough all across the board. Last two. How did you feel coming in, having not played the previous game? Felt great. Last question. You guys had a chance to get to 500 here against the Knicks and didn't win that game. Had a chance to build momentum in Houston, couldn't do that. Is there any building frustration from being in these good opportunities and being kind of right at the doorstep and not being able to – or is it kind of more individual? Yeah, I mean, we're missing our opportunities, for sure. Frustrating. We're still in a position to do something special, you know, with the way we started. Just got to, like I say, talk about this on tomorrow, figure out how to get better for Sunday, and win the next four at home before we go to Chicago. Thanks, A.D. The Lakers lose a tough one at home to the Dallas Mavericks. It's the final time they're going to play Dallas, a 1-11 to 1-10 on a Maxi Kleba three at the buzzer. The season's still here. 11 games. They still have games left. This is going to be a tough one. It's a tough pill to swallow, but you got to swallow it and you got to move forward. Now, you might have to change your recipe a little bit. You might not have, you know, cinnamon. You might have to put some nutmeg in there now, but they still got to figure this out. This was a tough game to take, but they just got to look at it game by game until they can get into a place where, I mean, six places really looks bleak after tonight, but they still have a mission ahead of them, and they just got to go out and get it done. It's not over yet. It's disappointing, but they still got work to do to get into the play-in and make some noise. That's the only thing they can do right now. They can't just think about, you know, losses, and they can't think about what could have been. They still have a season before them, and they got to go out and take care of some games. That's all it is. Yeah, and, you know, it's easy, like, for, you know, it gets really loud and noisy, you know, with all of the chatter and conversation around, you know, the standings and sixth place or play-in, et cetera, but you really just, you know, you have to find a way to block those things out, focus on the smallest details and executing those at the highest level. Making free throws makes a difference. Maxi, what happened? Well, I saw Kyrie getting double-teamed, and when he kind of moved away from me, I looked up at the shot clock, and I saw it was, like, 2.5 seconds or something. He turned back around, couldn't get a shot off, so when he passed it, I knew I had to, like, just quick-fire it. That's basically what I did. I don't know how many of these you've had in your career, but what's the number? Zero. Yeah, it was a pretty amazing feeling. You know, once I let it go, I saw the ball in the air, and then midair, I was like, oh, damn, it has a chance to go in. All of a sudden it went in, and the next thing I knew was, like, the whole team was running at me. So it was, yeah, a pretty cool experience. No, I mean, everybody was celebrating. I was just trying to, like, not get hurt because it was, yeah. Yeah, but, I mean, that wouldn't be affected by it, but obviously, you know, my teammates just wanted to celebrate with me. So, you know, just got to go through there. I'm actually okay, yeah. No soreness. Yeah, I mean, if you look at the standings in the West, obviously every win counts, especially that one. And, you know, it was just a big time for us to get two wins in a row, and we just got to continue. It doesn't really matter how ugly or pretty the wins are. We just got to somehow find a way, and that's what we did today. I think we showed a lot of character today. You know, everybody kept or stayed in the game, especially mentally, and that was a big thing for us today. I mean, when I shoot, I should always think it goes in. But obviously it was a quick trigger, so I didn't really have time to think it happened all so fast because the only thing, like I said, what I saw was I saw 2.5 seconds on the shot clock. I saw Kyrie didn't get a shot off, so I tried to be available for him so he has at least an outlet because a shot is better than no shot. Obviously we want Kyrie or Luka to take those type of shots, but I had to make myself available, and that's what I did and just shot it. Yeah, I haven't been shooting free throws well as of late, so obviously something I worked on and got to put more focus on. I just stepped to the line, did my routine, and live with the result. But you've got to find back your routine, your rhythm. Obviously big shots for me too felt very special. That's why I'm obviously very happy and so were my teammates for however the game ended today. Pooh. I guess that's game plan for them, which you would have to ask them. Obviously you don't want to foul on a three-point shot. I wasn't sure because he's very lengthy. I wasn't sure if he was going to block the shot or not, but I tried to get a release in and then he knocked me over. On the last play, like I said, they double-teamed Kyrie to try to get it out of his hands. I assume the game plan is anybody else but him, and then everybody else has got to be ready. I don't necessarily think it's a big mistake. You live with the shot kind of, but it was still a high-contested shot, I think, but I have to re-watch it. I didn't do it yet. But it's just also their game plan probably. Yeah, and as I said, especially right now with the rankings, we take any win, it doesn't matter how. We're just going to go from here, work, and try to prepare for the next game. Obviously the injury was very frustrating. It was also a longer process to come back in whenever you're not out on the court. It kind of sucks. Same thing, the San Antonio game was probably one of the worst endings. I had a very, very low and a very, very high right now, back-to-back, but the biggest thing is I just got to go into the next practice the same way and prepare for the next game the same way because we have a couple of ones left and we still need to win so I can't celebrate too much on this game. Obviously I will enjoy it because it was a special moment. I never had a shot like that before, but at the same time we've got to focus on the next game now too. First of all, he's very experienced, very calm. He knows how to talk to people, where to set up people, sees the strength in players and knows what he expects them to do so that helps really a lot. Obviously, like I said, he's a very, very great teammate. He has always positive spirits, uplifting words and all that so I'm very appreciative to be able to play with him. I think I learned a lot from just his body language, the way he interacts with his teammates. He's just a great character guy. What is 3-game drawdrift? Hopefully not dependent on a game winner, but we played him twice in the last couple of days. Obviously hopefully we have Kyrie back, maybe Luca. I don't know what the schedule there is, but we need everybody. But we can learn from our mistakes that we had against them. They hurt us, especially on the boards, but we've got to be better. We had close games against them, we've just got to finish better. Thank you, Max. Thank you, guys. Can you describe what you saw in that last play when two Lakers were running at you? It seemed like three of them were around me at the end of the game, but I'm just grateful that I was able to kind of have my head on a swivel. I thought about for a split second forcing that two up to tie the basketball game, but I saw Maxie open. I saw AD kind of helping a little too much, so I tried to get into his shot pocket. I'm glad I got it to him with enough time to at least get the shot off. I could easily be sitting in this position with a loss. It was just that type of game, but I'm glad we were resilient. We got really lucky and fortunate at the end of regulation tonight, so I'm glad it worked out for us. But I also missed a few people. I had Theo right underneath the rim like this. He told me after the game he wasn't sure whether or not he was going to make it or not. He was that close. I'm like, come on, Theo, man. Come on, man. I'm glad that it worked out for Maxie, and I felt like that was a redemption shot for him as well. He was putting a lot of pressure on himself after that turnover in San Antonio, and rightfully so. As hoopers and players, we really want to take care of the basketball at the end of the game and win. I think we got a chance to do that tonight, and we came out again on top. I was to the left of Maxie, trying to make sure that we didn't squish him or anything like that, because I've seen pileups like that and people get injured. I was just trying to hold my weight up and make sure the guys weren't toppling over him. It was fun. It was a great celebration as a team. I think J.K. was in the pile, right? I think he forgot he was a player for a quick second for sure, but that's the way we got celebrated as a team because we know how hard we're working, so it feels good. It definitely adds a unique amount of emotions. I don't think it's just one emotion. I just think he really wants to play well. He's missed a part of the season, and I think he feels how much we're pushing ourselves right now towards the end of the season. So I just want to continue to give him confidence, and I'm still getting to know him as a person, as a hooper out there. As long as I can look him eye-to-eye and communicate, then I feel like we're going to be in a good place, and tonight he made some big plays offensively and defensively. 39. Man, did not plan for that at all. Hey, I mean, we got the W. That's really the key to the rest of the season right now, but whatever it takes, whatever it takes. I let the guys know before the game, let's rock. So they know what that entails, just putting my body on the line and living with the results. Would feel better if my wife rubbed on it when I got home. She's watching. But I just need to take care of it. Again, I said it a few days ago, it's a little bit worse than I thought, but I'm just going to manage it, and I'm not going to sit up here making excuses on to the next game. It definitely creates almost like a stepping stone for us building better trust while we're out there. And I think if you watch over our last, I don't know how many games, maybe 10 or 12, we've been in almost every game other than probably just one blowout or two blowouts. But down the stretch is really where we have to build that trust. And as well as I've been playing in the fourth quarter throughout this season, I just don't want us to rely just on that. I'm going to show up, but at the same time, I just want my teammates to be aggressive as well, and they make my job a lot easier. So if I could start off the second half the same way we started off today, just being very aggressive, I feel like we put ourselves in a great position every single game we play. But when we're not into our defenders' bodies or our opponents' bodies, they kind of dictate the rhythm, and I felt like that could have happened easily tonight with A.D. crashing offensive glass or Malik Beasley making some big plays or D'Angelo Russell getting it going. So we did a good job on the guys tonight, on their guys tonight, and I'm just looking forward to us continuing to build that trust offensively and defensively. I mean, we're usually there, right, early watching, and so I don't think it's any extra science or anything like that, but I just think the preparation is just... It comes down to being intentional with my reps, and obviously I could sit at home or be on the court and be like, I wish my foot felt as great as it has all season, but it's just not the reality, and just taking my reps out there on the floor and being efficient with the opportunities that I have. It's not like it's the first time for me that I've ever played with an injury or anything like that, so just keep pushing and keep getting rehab and recovery and do all that I can to put myself in the best position. We're going to just continue to feed each other confidence as best we can. Obviously that starts internally, but just that confidence, knowing that your teammates want to see you be successful. We had some real conversations, grown-up conversations, mature conversations that I can honestly say that in my 12 years or 11 years on every team we haven't had those direct conversations sometimes. And it's no comparison, it's just we had a real group conversation that we need to get some things out, and now we're just living with the wins and losses because we're together. So I think if I answered your question the right way, it's just those conversations behind the scenes really matter for our organization, so it's been happening. New. Both feel great. Both feel great. Do I prefer? Win. Just a win. Just a win, man. Because, again, I could have been sitting up here just kind of swallowing my emotions and we easily could have lost tonight. So we definitely still can get better, but I like where we were down the end of the stretch, end of the game. Yeah, I knew. I can say it now. Yeah, I knew. I knew. But I really was intentional with that pass because I put it right in his shot pocket. And we work on that as a team, too, when we're passing to each other in practice. So it definitely helped tonight, and I'm glad we were successful. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Appreciate it. You ready?