Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham was not pleased with his team's performance in their 114-110 loss vs. the lowly Houston Rockets — a defeat that could potentially haunt them down the road amid the muddled Western Conference playoff race.
The Lakers, playing on the second night of back-to-back and without Anthony Davis — following an exuberant win over the New Orleans Pelicans — were behind the 8-ball from the get-go. Houston led 31-19 after the first quarter and never relinquished the lead.
“I've said it before: Energy, effort, and urgency,” noted Ham. “And I thought coming out of the gates, that kind of was non-existent. … I saw it on (Houston's) part. We should have been the ones playing with that type of edge. … There is no excuse.”
It was a classic March trap game against a lottery team. The Lakers played like they were thinking about what they were going to watch on the airplane. Los Angeles shot 37.8% from the field and 25% from 3 against the 17-52 Rockets. Houston made 52.8% of its field-goal attempts.
“We don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves, we gotta go back and fill our cups up tomorrow and get ready to take advantage of a five-game homestand,” said Ham.
The Rockets bested the Lakers 78-46 in the paint (a typical strength of the Lakers), though Ham pushed back on the notion that his team was unable to overcome Davis' absence. He cited the Lakers' lazy on-ball defense as a culprit behind Houston's dominance inside.
“That individual pride it takes to keep the ball in front and guys behind you knowing that the paint is the priority. … You can throw all of that out: rotations, coverages. Sometimes it just comes down to individuals performing and guys being locked in, once again, and understanding the circumstances and being ready to play.”
Houston outrebounded the Lakers by 15 and outscored them 20-10 on second-chance points.
“That’s unacceptable,” added Jarred Vanderbilt. “Especially a team like that, we gotta protect the paint first and worry about shooters later.”
“It's a back-to-back, there's no excuse,” said Austin Reaves “Everybody has those in the league. We, as players, gotta do better.”
While the Lakers didn't rebound well at the Toyota Center, they have shown a recent tendency to bounce back from subpar performances. After Ham blasted the team for their low-energy showing against the Minnesota Timberwolves on March 4, they responded with a joyous domination of the Memphis Grizzlies. Earlier this week, AD made amends for his offensive struggles against the New York Knicks by personally pulverizing the Pelicans.
The Lakers start their highly-anticipated homestand against the Dallas Mavericks on Friday. The reeling and banged-up Mavs are one game up on the Lakers for the No. 8 seed.
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