Darvin Ham Has a Ridiculous Excuse for the Lakers Loss

The Los Angeles Lakers bowed out of the NBA Playoffs in the first round, once again to the Denver Nuggets. Lakers fans can find a silver lining in the fact that they performed better than they did in last season's conference finals, stealing one game, and losing at the buzzer in the other two. LeBron James showed that he is somehow still good enough to lead a team to a deep postseason run if he is surrounded by the right pieces.

The right pieces mostly include the rest of the roster, but the head coach can't be ignored. Since the Lakers don't have a deep, stacked roster like the Boston Celtics or the Denver Nuggets, they have to outplay their talent level. And that requires an elite head coach.

Unfortunately, Darvin Ham has proven himself to not be an elite coach in his two-year tenure in Los Angeles. His post-game statements after the loss to the Nuggets on Monday night showed his lack of accountability and leadership.

Lakers News: Darvin Ham Ridiculously Blames Injuries For the Nuggets Loss

Blaming injuries for the first-round exit, Ham said that they needed to stay healthier for the season.

On the surface, this is right. Health is an underrated part of success in the NBA. Injury luck or lack thereof can be a big determining factor for teams in any given season.

However, it's impossible to argue that the Lakers had bad injury luck this season. On the contrary, they were one of the healthiest teams in the league.

Anthony Davis played 76 and LeBron James played 71 games this season. That is the most number of games in any season for AD, and the most games James played since 2017-18. Austin Reaves didn't miss a single game and D'Angelo Russell only missed six games.

In an 82-game regular season, it's hard to expect a healthier regular season. Yes, Jarred Vanderbilt, Cam Reddish, and Gabe Vincent missed significant time but those are bench players, and every single team in the NBA deals with absences to some role players.

Plus, the Lakers had their entire rotation healthy for the playoffs. Compared to other playoff teams like the Heat, Bucks, Knicks, Pelicans, or the Clippers, Darvin Ham wasn't dealing with any injuries to starters.

It's understandable that Ham wants to deflect the blame that is coming his way. However, this team should have been better in the regular season considering how much AD and LeBron played. That way, they could have avoided the Nuggets in the first round and perhaps had a more successful postseason.

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