Lakers News: Darvin Ham Bemoans L.A.'s "Senseless Turnovers" In Opening Loss
A lot went wrong for the Lakers in their season opener and it doesn't make it much better when they have to fave the NBA Champion Warriors to start things off. New Lakers head coach Darvin Ham will have to wait to count his first win of his head coaching career but believes there was a glaring problem with turnovers.
When looking at the box score, the Lakers had just four more turnovers than the Warriors (22-18) but the turnovers resulted in 27 points for the Warriors in comparison to 17 for the Lakers. 12 of those instances were at the hands of the Lakers' three priciest players: All-Stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and future Hall of Famer Russell Westbrook.
This was also a catalyst for another strong Warriors third quarter as they blew the game open and went up by as much as 27 points. Game one of the season comes with its rust and kinks and with many of the players not playing huge minutes during the preseason, these are the results you can get.
The Warriors are one of the toughest teams in the NBA for their ability to control both sides of the ball, and the tough defense made the Lakers prone to making careless mistakes (quotes via Spectrum SportsNet).
"A lot of that stuff isn't scripted, it isn't something they've broken down in practice, but a lot of that is Draymond quarterbacking the defense. They have such a great rhythm on both sides of the ball. It's organized because they understand one another."
There's still plenty of time to turn things around for the Lakers, but the beginning of the Lakers schedule is not forgiving.
After playing a tough Warriors team, the Lakers have just two days to prepare for their home opener against the Clippers who will have Kawhi Leonard and Paul George back on the court.