LA Lakers coach Darvin Ham was distraught following his team’s heartbreaking 111-110 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night (March 17) at Crypto.com Arena. Ham compared the loss to his loss to the Indiana Pacers earlier in the season.
Ham faced reporters after the game to discuss what led to his team’s collapse late in the game. The rookie coach described the way they defended Kyrie Irving on the final possession. Irving found Maxi Kleber, who hit the game-winner over Anthony Davis.
“We made it tough, we tried to be as active as possible, and (Irving) found an open guy, and we didn’t get there fast enough,” Ham said. “AD had an extended last-minute contest, but it’s tough. It’s like Indiana all over again.”
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Darvin Ham was alluding to the LA Lakers’ 116-115 loss to the Indiana Pacers at home on November 29. Tyrese Haliburton had the ball with less than five seconds left, but he found rookie Andrew Nembhard, who hit the game-winning 3-pointer over LeBron. James.
Ham also lamented the poor free throws and fouls by the Lakers during the game. The Lakers went 19 of 31 from the charity sideline and would have easily won the game had they not missed too many of their free throws.
As far as fouls go, Wenyen Gabriel fouled Kyrie Irving on a drive and Anthony Davis accidentally hit Maxi Kleber from beyond the arc late on. The Lakers (34-37) remain number 10 in the Western Conference, while the Mavericks (36-35) are now sixth.
Anthony Davis had a terrible final minute in the LA Lakers’ loss to the Mavericks
The LA Lakers were up by four points over the dallas mavericks with less than 10 seconds remaining in the game. However, the Lakers blew the lead, with Maxi Kleber hitting the game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Mavericks a 111-110 victory.
antonio davis He had a great game, contributing 26 points, ten rebounds and three assists. However, David had a terrible stretch in the last seven seconds of the game. He fouled Kleber with 7.2 seconds left. Kleber made three free throws to cut the Lakers’ lead to just one point.
The Mavericks then fouled Davis on the next possession. He missed the first free throw before making the second to give the Lakers a 110-108 lead with 6.7 seconds left. Kyrie Irving couldn’t find an open shot, but he saw Kleber and passed the ball to him.
Kleber fired from beyond the arc, releasing it with just 0.2 seconds remaining and doing so just as the horn sounded. Davis broke away from Kleber but was unable to recover to contest the shot.
