The Los Angeles Lakers are still alive! On Saturday night time, the Lakers staved off elimination, successful Game 4 and forcing a Activity 5 from the Denver Nuggets in the initially round of the 2024 NBA playoffs. The Lakers will dwell to fight another working day, earning a victory, 119-108.
Now, Los Angeles will travel again to the Mile Higher Metropolis and search to prolong this series and force a Game 6. The Lakers’ possibilities of executing so are trim, and their chances of successful the series at this instant are trim to none. On the other hand, if the Lakers can not lengthen their time earlier Monday, it may perhaps spell problems for head coach Darvin Ham.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Ham may perhaps be in the very hot seat if the Lakers get rid of the collection in five game titles. Wojnarowski explained this on ESPN’s NBA Countdown right before Sport 4.
“If you are a head coach of the Lakers and you get swept in the very first round of the playoffs, or you eliminate in five, you’ve got acquired work challenges. You’ve received work security troubles,” Wojnarowski mentioned. “And Darvin Ham will have that.”
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If the Lakers shed on Monday and fire Ham, the purple and gold will be searching for their fifth head coach in a decade. On paper, this probable firing appears to be like an outrage as Ham has led LA to a 90-74 report, profitable 54% of his game titles. Ham has led LA to two consecutive postseason appearances, such as a Western Conference Finals visual appearance as a seventh seed in 2023. Nonetheless, people who follow the staff intently know Ham is not the rationale why this crew has experienced good accomplishment.
The Lakers have underachieved in the earlier two seasons, especially in 2023-2024. LA potentially experienced the finest offseason of any crew, adding gamers who seemed like they’d complement the celebrity duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The workforce kept players who healthy that bill and points had been looking up for the purple and gold nonetheless, Ham obtained in his possess way. Because of to bad coaching decisions, not enjoying the appropriate gamers, and not placing players in a position to be successful, the Lakers underperformed. He obtained absent from what labored for LA in previous year’s playoffs, resulting in the Lakers obtaining to combat for a engage in-in position.
In Ham’s defense, accidents harm the crew greatly, but when you blend his very poor selection with the accidents, you had the Lakers hoping to dig them selves out of a big hole. It’s not fully Ham’s fault, but if we ended up issuing a blame pie, it is at least 30 or 40 p.c.
Irrespective of what takes place, the Lakers brass have seemingly previously built up their mind. We are going to will need to wait and see if operator Jeanie Buss and organization pull the result in.
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