Did Darvin Ham Lie About LeBron James? Lakers HC Backtracks on Initial Claim Again During Crunch Time vs Kings

In the first game of the season, LeBron James played a restricted time of 29 minutes. At the time, Head coach Darvin Ham at the time, claimed that this would be followed throughout the season. This move infuriated many fans. They could not understand why he would choose not to let a veteran contribute, especially when others don’t seem to be doing well. 

Then in the next game against the Phoenix Suns, James played 35 minutes putting up 21 points. The Lakers won the match 95-100. And in Sunday’s match against the Sacramento Kings, LeBron played 39 minutes putting up 27 points with 15 rebounds. So what is it that Ham is trying to achieve? Why would he say one thing and do the other? 

Darvin wants LeBron to play more?

Despite James’ regular play time and good performance, the Laker lost the match 132-127 with the game going into overtime. When  Ham spoke to the media in the post game press conference he was asked about the takeaways from the game. He shared that the main thing on his mind right now is to start with buckling down on their rotation. 

Further he added, “I don’t wanna run Bron into the ground. I don’t wanna run A into the ground too early. Obviously it was an overtime game tonight. They’re playing a high level game tonight and you wanna leave them out there.”

He also explained that maintaining the balance is important and that it is based on player performance. While his team has been doing a great job in this previously, he claimed that they would be doing a deep dive into rotation after this. 

What went wrong?

When taking an overall look at the stats, it seemed like James playing the longer with others like Davis equally contributing, a win was assured. This was evident in the match against Phenix where Davis put the highest points and rebounds in the game (30, 12). But that was not the case today. Yes, James played the usual time. And Davis performed well with 30 points and 16 rebounds. 

Read more : Lakers Fans are Unhappy With Darvin Ham’s Comments on LeBron James’ Future

But then, the strategy did not work as they still lost. Now it seems like it’s back to square one. The team at LA must work out the best strategy going forward if they want to keep their title hopes alive. As they meet the Orlando Magic tomorrow, let’s hope they have finally figured things out.  

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