Lakers News: Did D'Angelo Russell Just Take A Jab At Darvin Ham?

The tensions may be high between LA's guard and head coach.

Your Los Angeles Lakers came up short again to lose their second game in a row, this time to the Utah Jazz on the road on Saturday night. 

LA dropped another winnable game, 132-125. There are no moral victories, especially for the Lakers, in any circumstance, but the bright spot in this game was LA's guard D'Angelo Russell. Russell dropped a season-high 39 points on 15/26 shooting in the loss and played a team-high 41 minutes. 

D-Lo also started in the contest and put the Lakers in the best position to get the win. However, this performance was not enough as the others, including Anthony Davis, didn't step up, and there was no LeBron James for this one. 

It was another frustrating one to witness. After the game, D-Lo spoke to The Athletic's Jovan Buha and possibly threw shade at head coach Darvin Ham. 

D'Angelo Russell on how comfortable he is playing alongside Austin Reaves: "We got a lot of credibility in the short stint that we have together. So you put us out there, it works."

— Jovan Buha (@jovanbuha) January 14, 2024

This was the first game since November 8th that D-Lo and guard Austin Reaves started together and worked. The backcourt duo shot 22-for-34, 64.7% from the field in Saturday's loss. Although it wasn't the result we wanted, that dup played great together. However, Ham doesn't see it as such, as the two haven't logged a ton of minutes together. 

The lineup of Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Jarred Vanderbilt, Austin Reaves, and D'Angelo Russell, the lineup that got this team to the Western Conference finals, has only gotten a combined 4 minutes in the 2023-2024 season. Yes, that is 1005 on Ham, and he deserves the hate thrown his way when it comes to that.

Russell clearly threw a job at Ham, and he deserves it. Ham is doing something new instead of sticking with what worked for the Lakers. That's only one part of a bigger problem for LA, but maybe if Ham goes back to that lineup, things would be better. 

However, we'll never know because Darvin won't get his head out of his you-know-what. Sit back, don't relax, and don't enjoy as we watch Ham dismantle this team little by little. 

Shoutout to D-Lo!