Monday night condemned Los Angeles to a 101-99 loss — and a 2-0 series deficit in this Western Conference quarterfinal series.
Nowhere is this tension more evident than in how the Lakers’ superstars are responding to head coach Darvin Ham — especially amidst speculation that the franchise will retain him for next season. LeBron James has had a rocky relationship with the second-year head coach, and after Game 2 in Denver, Anthony Davis appeared to finally run out of patience with the team’s oft-criticized leader.
The Lakers began Monday’s game on a tear and built a 20-point lead in the second half. But Los Angeles let it slip away at high altitude — and with it, a chance to get back into this series against the defending NBA champions, who only led for 44 seconds over the entire game. Davis was furious in the aftermath of the Lakers’ collapse, bemoaning those stretches where the team “doesn’t know what they’re doing” on either end of the court.
Davis scored a game-high 32 points and hauled in a team-high 11 rebounds across 39 minutes, but he was powerless to stop the Nuggets from rallying in the second half and holding the Lakers to just 40 points in the final two quarters. Davis attempted only one shot in the fourth quarter despite shooting an efficient 14-of-19 on the night, and some have deemed this a significant strategic error on Ham’s point.
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