{"id":74331,"date":"2024-04-21T19:03:42","date_gmt":"2024-04-21T23:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=74331"},"modified":"2024-04-22T20:31:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T00:31:05","slug":"darvin-ham-defends-lakers-star-after-another-poor-playoff-outing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/21\/darvin-ham-defends-lakers-star-after-another-poor-playoff-outing\/","title":{"rendered":"Darvin Ham Reacts to Lakers Star\u2019s Poor Playoff Outing"},"content":{"rendered":"

D\u2019Angelo Russell<\/a> has been here before.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the Los Angeles Lakers faced the Denver Nuggets in a playoff rematch<\/a> that pits two of the best players in NBA history \u2014LeBron James<\/a> and Nikola Jokic<\/a> \u2014against each other for the third time. However, while the battle is headlined by juggernauts James and Jokic, Russell is once again the center of attention.<\/p>\n

Going 6-20 from the floor in Game 1 of their First Round matchup, Russell had the lowest field percentage (30.0) of any player with at least 10 shot attempts. He also shot 1-9 from 3, the worst 3-point percentage (11.1) of any player with at least five 3-point attempts.<\/p>\n

His stat line was an eye sore and, after his performance in the back half of the 2023-24 regular season, a bit unexpected. Given his playoff record, perhaps it shouldn\u2019t have been. Nonetheless, at 28 years old, Russell\u2019s firmly in his prime. If there was any time for him to change his playoff reputation, it\u2019s now.<\/p>\n

Darvin Ham Defends Lakers Star After Another Poor Playoff Outing<\/h2>\n

Yet, in Game 1, Russell looked not only like the player that\u2019s shot 38.5 percent from the field and 31.7 percent from 3 throughout his career but the one that struggled mightily against the Nuggets in the 2023 NBA Western Conference Finals. While the Lakers were being swept by Denver, Russell averaged just 6.3 points per game on 32.3 percent shooting from the field and 13.3 percent from 3.<\/p>\n

Russell has never been a particularly efficient player but he\u2019s also rarely looked so pedestrian. At times, it was impossible to tell whether he was a former second overall pick or someone the Lakers found at LA Fitness. That goes not just for last year but last night.<\/p>\n

Still, the Lakers stand by Russell. Speaking to reporters after the game, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham defended his point guard, saying \u201cD-Lo is a huge reason why we’re here<\/a> in the first place\u201d (per ESPN reporter Dave McMenamin).<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not going to bail out on my player just because he’s missing the shots that he normally makes,\u201d Ham continues. \u201cSo same shots were going in against New Orleans [in the Play-In Tournament] and other games that he’s played in to help us get to this point. So it just wasn’t his night.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Ham\u2019s point, Russell wasn\u2019t taking shots that were out of the ordinary. To put it simply, his touch was just off. He couldn\u2019t find water from the ocean.<\/p>\n

D-Lo Encouraged<\/h3>\n

On his finishes, Russell seemed to lack either concentration or crispness. He took a couple of tough contested jumpers. However, he largely took shots within the flow of the offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel like sometimes the ball just don’t fall,\u201d Russell says of his off night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t recall the last time I got 20 shots,\u201d he adds. \u201cSo for me to get 20 good looks — not 20 ‘good,’ probably five or six of them were questionable. I know what I’m capable of. So honestly, I’m excited. I’m excited about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strength In Numbers<\/h3>\n

If the Lakers want to take the Nuggets down, Russell\u2019s shots have to start falling. Again, many of his attempts were makeable and didn\u2019t undermine the integrity of the offense. However, if Russell can\u2019t get it going for whatever reason, L.A. shouldn\u2019t hesitate to use Austin Reaves<\/a> or Rui Hachimura<\/a> in some of the actions they put D-Lo in.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only been a year since Reaves scored 16.9 points per game in the 2023 NBA Playoffs, shooting 46.4 percent from the field and 44.3 percent from 3. Whether with the Lakers or Washington Wizards, Hachimura has been an efficient playoff scorer. Prior to Game 1, Hachimura was averaging 12.8 points per game on 57.3 percent shooting from the field and 51.9 percent from 3 for his playoff career.<\/p>\n

Frankly, none of them may be reliable enough to be a true third option. Nonetheless, there\u2019s strength in numbers<\/a>. The Lakers would be wise to remember that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

D\u2019Angelo Russell has been here before. On Saturday, the Los Angeles Lakers faced the Denver Nuggets in a playoff rematch that pits two of the best players in NBA history \u2014LeBron James and Nikola Jokic \u2014against each other for the third time. However, while the battle is headlined by juggernauts James and Jokic, Russell is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":74360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1608,20,62,3],"tags":[307,3839,596],"class_list":["post-74331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lakers","category-basketball","category-nuggets","category-nba","category-news","tag-dangelo-russell","tag-darvin-ham","tag-nba-playoffs"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}