Lakers Coach Darvin Ham Reacts To Game 1 vs Nuggets | May 16, 2023

Hey, Darvin, as some of the match-ups switched around in that second half, you had Rui a lot more, even defending Jokic, A.D. off of him somehow. When did you decide to go to that adjustment, and how much do you think it keyed the comeback? Well, just pivoting within the game, making a slight adjustment. Wanted to take A off as being the initial line of defense, and hopefully Rui could turn and make him go east-west a little bit more. And once he went up to shoot, he shoots 70% on those floaters, those little short-range chip shots and floaters and hooks and little one-leg fadeaways. He shoots them at an amazing rate, scores them, I should say. So the idea was just to get A behind him a little bit and have A as that big, long arm just ready to contest over the top of Rui. And so it was good for us in some segments, and we were able to, after a tough first half, giving up 72 points, claw our way back into it. I think the closest we got was within three, but hats off to them. They came out, they defended their home floor. A lot, a lot of long rebounds. We gave them way too many second-chance points, offensive rebounding opportunities, and 50-50 balls for that matter. We've got to be better in transition, and we can't foul them. We've got to be more disciplined in showing our hands when we're guarding the ball and guarding those guys around the rim, in the post, and whatnot. I know it just ended, but they made almost 50% from three-point tonight. Is that something you've got to get out there more, or is it more coming out the passing lanes? I just think it's a little bit of everything, man. It's a talented team. It's very few one-trick ponies that make it this far. And so they're able to put pressure on you in the paint, pressure on you from the three-point line, very capable shooters, some of which are elite. And you've just got to be ready to give multiple efforts. Again, as I mentioned before the game, doing your work early, being in position when the defensive possession starts. That way we're not playing catch-up. So we'll go back and look at the film tonight, see what we need to clean up, take a good look at that second half, see what went well, try to sustain the good stuff and alleviate and repair the bad stuff. Darvin, you guys started Dennis. I think they ended up with, I think, offensive rebounds on nine of their 11 shots. How did their size, especially against your smaller lineup, affect the game? Do you think that would re-evaluate those fives? I mean, my first inclination is it's not even a size factor. It's a mobility factor, meaning, like, bodies. We had guys, multiple bodies just standing around. No one is seeking out a hit. No one is, you know, one person getting a hit, one person selling out going after the basketball. A couple of times the ball just dropped to the ground and someone swooped in from their team and grabbed it. But, you know, at first glance, just coming off the game without having watched it again, that's what I feel like was happening. Too many possessions where we had bodies in the vicinity of the rebound but just never put a body on their body or just made a deliberate attempt to go grab the ball. I mean, again, it's not any one coverage that you're going to be able to stand versus that kid. Like, there's no one person that's going to stop them. It has to be done by committee. And you have to switch up match-ups at times and you have to switch up coverages. And so we didn't want to go too deep into the in-game adjustments. And, you know, it's still that ultimate chess game. So we were comfortable with the results. Gave us a chance to get back into the game. And, you know, it's one of the things we know if we need to go back to it, it's there, along with several other things that we didn't unveil tonight. Yes, I mean, absolutely. It has to be a part of it, you know, our plan of attack. And then, you know, having said that, Murray was in foul trouble. And so he was the obvious target to try to go at. And just in general terms, you want to make him and Jokic work on this side of the ball, Michael Porter joining these guys. You want to try to make them work their offensive firepower at such a level to where, you know, if they're only playing on that side of the ball, they're not having to exert any energy defensively. And the more energy they have just to snipe you down, you know, when they have the balls in their hands on the other side. So it's all the while trying to stay within rhythm. You know, we don't want to start playing up against the shot clock because we're taking all day to get a particular matchup or get a guy into the action. The thing that has to happen, okay, if they're pre-switching or doing something like that, we just got to keep the ball and the bodies moving until we do find it. And if we do find something good without them being in the action, we have to be ready to take that, too. You just mentioned you don't want to play too long into the shot clock. Is that sort of your mentality looking at that LeBron 3 above the break? You guys are down 3 with 40-some seconds to go. There's time on the shot clock. But is that kind of the mentality there? The shot that he's made, I don't know how many times. We're talking about the all-time lead score in NBA history. I have confidence in him. It always can be argued, okay, is this the right shot to take now or is it? But if he hits it, we're not having this discussion. So I want all my players to be confident, and he is definitely confident at the top of that list, and I trust his feel. There's been times we wanted him to take certain shots. He won't take them, and we find something better on the backside or underneath if they're trying to force him a certain direction or double-team him late or whatever. So he definitely has my trust in all of those regards. But just in general, I thought we slowed down a little bit. We were slowing a little bit in the first half. We got to come out running after makes and misses, pushing the pace right back at them. I thought they did an incredible job of doing that on their own behalf, like makes, misses. Jokic can get it and go. Basically everybody in their starting lineup can get a defensive rebound and start to break. So we have a team built of guys who have those capabilities as well, and we definitely got to execute them next time out. Darvin, you guys haven't been in this position so far, this postseason down 0-1. Were you optimistic, though, with enough of what you saw in the second half when it comes to limiting them a little bit more defensively, the things you guys found offensively? Did you see enough to still leave this game and feel relatively good despite the loss? Yeah, I mean, we woke up, and I thought we started digging in and playing a little bit with a little more urgency. But there's no doubt in my mind, when we come out for game two, we'll be ready. We'll go back and do what we need to do for our team physically, start the recovery process now, break down a film, watch what we need to watch. But thank God it's the best of seven. It's not the NCAA tournament. It's the first of four. We'll be okay, trust me.