Darvin Ham praises effort, fight of shorthanded Lakers against Nuggets despite end of five-game win skid

As their profitable skid involves an end on Monday, Darvin Ham is nothing however proud of what his Los Angeles Lakers staff demonstrated against the Denver Nuggets.

Facing the top-seeded Nuggets staff with out their one-two punch stars in LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the rookie head coach nonetheless counseled the shorthanded Lakers on their dropping effort.

“Kudos our guys — they kept fighting and just had a couple bad turnovers, couple balls that didn’t go our way, couple shots didn’t go down,” Ham stated following the 122-109 loss, via Associated Press’s Pat Graham. “The group that was out there, they were competitive, then gave it their all until we couldn’t give anymore.”

Having a shorthanded unit and depleted slate of position gamers, the Lakers have noticed their five-game profitable streak pounded to mud, however they had been capable of maintain a fight down in crunch time in face of the large Nuggets staff.

Leading by as many as 20 within the ultimate body, the Nuggets had been minimally shocked by the Lakers’ mini-run. But because of Jamal Murray, the Nuggets went on to totally safe the victory.

The Lakers struggled all through the match on their taking pictures effectivity from lengthy distance, draining simply 28.6 % of their 28 complete makes an attempt. They had been additionally outrebounded on the glass, tallying 44 against the 55 boards of the Nuggets.

Denver was powered by the 34-point output by Jamal Murray, with Nikola Jokoc dropping one other main triple-double with 14 markers, 16 assists and 11 boards. 

Russell Westbrook got here up massive off the bench with 25 factors, seven boards and 7 assists for L.A., whereas Thomas Bryant notched a double-double together with his 17 factors and 10 rebounds.

The Lakers will fly again residence and can set to kick off a prolonged five-game residence stand beginning on Thursday against the Dallas Mavericks.