Darvin Ham says Lakers ‘have to be a better defensive rebounding team’ after loss to Nuggets

After another loss to the Nuggets, Darvin Ham points to the Lakers’ lack of rebounding as a factor in the defeat.

The Lakers lost once again to the Denver Nuggets on Saturday. The script didn’t change much from the last seven encounters, the Lakers played well, but Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokić were too much for L.A. to handle, ruining the LeBron James 40k party.

After the game, much of the talk was about fourth-quarter miscues and the brilliance on the other side of the floor, but Darvin Ham did point out that rebounding is an area the Lakers must improve on to beat the defending champs.

“The rebounding thing, we’ve got to clean that up,” Ham said postgame. “We gotta be a better defensive rebounding team for sure. We have great defensive possessions and we just gotta finish the defense. I thought we were good tonight in transition for the most part. Good in the half-court, you know, obviously they hit some tough shots. Jamal and Nikola, they’re tough shot-makers. Michael Porter Jr. was on fire tonight, he didn’t miss a shot, which is man, unbelievable. They make you pay. And so when you are fortunate enough to get a stop or force a miss, you gotta collect a rebound.”

This isn’t the first time rebounding has been brought up this season as a weakness for the Lakers. In January, Ham mentioned that ‘you can’t scheme rebounding’ and there has been an emphasis on improving on the offensive glass as well.

However, the Lakers are consistently inconsistent on the boards. They were out-rebounded 47-31 and it wasn’t just the fact that they lost that battle but when they failed to grab those rebounds that impacted the game.

In the fourth, with 2:49 left the Lakers were down 113-110. Denver grabbed a defensive rebound on a Rui Hachimura miss which led to a Murray basket, then Jokic grabbed another defensive rebound off a Michael Porter Jr. block on Anthony Davis, which Justin Holiday converted on the other end.

This four-point burst sealed Los Angeles’ fate as Denver continued to pile on during the closing seconds of the game.

Against the Nuggets you have to be nearly perfect to win. If the rebounding attention and effort aren’t going to be there than you can expect more losses like this in March.

This is where having an elite wing like Jarred Vanderbilt back would help the Lakers. Vando gives this team size they can’t make up for in his absence. Hopefully, his return is forthcoming as the Lakers have more tough Western Conference matchups on the horizon this month.

You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88.