Darvin Ham Breaks Down Why Kings Give Lakers So Many Fits

Los Angeles hasn't been able to come out on top against Sacramento all season.

The Los Angeles Lakers season has been a whirlwind, but they have shown the ability to play well against some of the best teams in the league. They seem to step up their game when it matters most, which could be a good sign for the postseason if they can clinch a spot.

However, there are exceptions to this, notably when it comes to their performance against the Denver Nuggets and Sacramento Kings. Los Angeles hasn't been able to come out on top against either team this season, which is troubling in potential playoff matchups.

In the last week, the Lakers have lost two games to the Kings, both of which were winnable. But the same old issues plagued the Lakers and head coach Darvin Ham laid out why the Kings give them so many fits.

“You may have to stop three or four actions with this team, and increasingly more and more and more, teams are playing this style of basketball,” Ham said. “So something happens, you plug in one leak, and there’s another one and another one. You just gotta keep going. It’s not going to be an exact science. … Just one little step backward that we’ll learn from, extract the good, look at the bad and try to not be as bad at the bad and even better at the good.”

Per Darvin Ham via The Athletic

The Kings emerged last season as a surprise team in the Western Conference, once they gained guidance from coach Mike Brown. He helped turn them into the fun, energetic squad that they are, but they are no longer a pushover. 

Sacramento is a potential title contender, whose offensive attack is one of the best in the NBA. The Lakers struggle to contain them and it has shown in how they gameplan. 

The lack of point-of-attack defenders on the Lakers' roster has made things very difficult when going up against a team like the Kings, or even the Nuggets. Los Angeles may get some key veterans back from injury, but at this point, the biggest hope is that they can avoid both teams through any playoff run, as improbably as that is.