In the first half of this season, the Los Angeles Lakers were sputtering. They would occasionally look like they were starting to build a bit of momentum, only to then suffer an inexcusable loss to an inferior team, usually in blowout fashion.
Even worse, head coach Darvin Ham was going with one starting lineup after another, and it reportedly even had some players questioning their roles.
Many felt the Lakers didn’t have an identity as far as a style of play or something to hang their hat on.
But now, they have won three games in a row, six of their last seven and 11 of their last 16. They have been one of the NBA’s highest-scoring teams during that span, and their defense hasn’t been too shabby of late either.
Anthony Davis, who took over in Wednesday’s 138-122 win over the Utah Jazz with 37 points and 15 rebounds, feels the team now has an identity.
"We're just playing the right way, sharing the basketball, playing together… We're just in a great groove." Anthony Davis on the Lakers recent play. pic.twitter.com/0CGDoJ7JsH
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) February 15, 2024
“We’re starting to establish that we’re gonna be a fast-paced team. A team that likes to get into the paint and get to the line, but also be tenacious on the defensive end. So we’re creating an identity for what we have to be moving forward. We can’t be coming out the All-Star [break] and alright, what type of team are we? Or this is who we have to be and all that. This is who we are. And we got to make sure that how we’re playing as of late, the past two, three, four weeks, keeping the identity and carrying it over to post All-Star.”
When Ham took over as L.A.’s head coach prior to the start of last season, he made it clear he wanted the team to win with defense and a fast-breaking offense that attacks the paint. It did that after last season’s All-Star break, and it looks like it has been doing the same over the past few weeks.
With a 30-26 record and a home-heavy schedule until late March, it has a great opportunity to make the playoffs outright with lots of momentum and bypass the play-in tournament.
