Darvin Ham kills Lakers once again as team drops big game to Timberwolves

The Los Angeles Lakers started a crucial five-game homestand against the Minnesota Timberwolves, who reside above the Lake Show in the standings. The Lakers need to build on a very successful road trip that collected two wins in three games.

Well…they didn’t.

The Los Angeles Lakers fall to .500 at home (15-15), losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves 110-102. This is a bad loss because many of the teams they are chasing lost as well and they lost a big chance to gain ground.

The Golden State Warriors are next on the schedule on Sunday and Stephen Curry is reported to be back in the lineup. There’s a nasty rumor going around that he’s pretty good and can shoot the lights out of arenas.

The good of the Los Angeles Lakers loss:

Anthony Davis was killing the Timberwolves early and often!

These post-game reports breaking down the analysis of this team mean nothing if Anthony Davis does not come out with the mindset of dominating early and being aggressive. He saw a very favorable matchup against Rudy Gobert and took advantage of it, running him all over the floor…

As you can see, pictures can tell a thousand words and this perfectly illustrates AD’s first quarter. He scored 16 of his 18 first-half points in the first 12 minutes. The reason he didn’t score more is coming up later, but AD had better start getting used to this concept for the next month or so.

Davis finished with 38 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks.

It’s a real shame that LeBron James and Anthony Davis has put up performances all season long leading up to losses. He really put a whipping on Minnesota. He just did not have enough help.

There’s something about Malik Beasley that Lakers fans should just love!

The way Malik plays basketball is a life lesson for all of us. Confidence is everything to accomplish your goals. It seems that every time this dude touches the ball on offense, he fires. In this game, some actually fell.

He finished with 15 points and 8 rebounds.

https://twitter.com/SpectrumSN/status/1631876457159901185

This analysis seems a little tongue in cheek (This writer always roots for shooters that don’t care!), but the Lakers are going to need this type of player on this team to survive this gauntlet of game whether he is on fire or is donating bricks to charity. The fact that he is a capable shooter along with his mindset makes it mandatory for opponents to stay close to him.

That will help AD gain some space. Think it’s not important?

Here’s an example of the opposite side of the equation (Sorry Russ! This is to make a point!)…

Troy Brown Jr. is still hot even though he had limited chances!

This guy continues to be hot from outside since LeBron James went out. Even though he didn’t get much of a chance (More on that later!), he put the ball in the hole.

He finished with 8 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals.

Jarred Vanderbilt had an outstanding game! Just outstanding!

Anthony Edwards will be a superstar in this league down the road. He might already be the Timberwolves’ franchise player. Forget the box score where he scored 19 points. Jarred Vanderbilt had him working in a frustrated fashion all night long. This dude can defend and lock top players down. He did it to Luka and Kyrie last weekend and the Ant-Man got the treatment in this game.

Don’t look for him to put up big offensive numbers, because the opponent’s leading scorer won’t either.

The bad of the Los Angeles Lakers loss:

Anthony Davis AND Troy Brown Jr. got in foul trouble in the first half! 

If you played the video, you know what Anthony Davis was doing to Minnesota and Troy Brown Jr. hadn’t missed a shot. However, both of them collected three fouls that slowed them somewhat. AD had two offensive fouls for illegal picks and when he sat down, the T’Wolves went on a run almost immediately.

The middle two quarters offensively! 

After dropping 34 points on Minnesota’s head in the first quarter, the Lakers scored 42 points COMBINED over the next two quarters. Outside of AD and Malik Beasley scoring occasionally, the offense slumped big time.

Rui Hachimura’s trade is starting to look bad!

Look, at the time the deal looked good. The Lakers got rid of Kendrick Nunn while having half a roster of guards for a former lottery pick. That’s why sometimes “on paper” doesn’t transcend to NBA floors. Those three second-round picks are starting to look really good to the Wizards now that Rui is putting up stat lines like 6 points, 2 rebounds (How tall is this guy?!!!) and an assist.

Remember, the Los Angeles Lakers have to make the decision to extend him in the offseason. Right now, would you?

Dennis Schroder…

Wanna see something delusional yet hilarious? Go to Twitter and read some Lakers fans comments singing Dennis Schroder’s praises after his 26-point performance. Not to bring up old stuff, but our Day one readers probably remember this statement from the OKC Thunder post-game report…

"It will be interesting to see how that ankle feels for the next game because he was in some real pain when he stepped on a Thunder player’s foot.Now let’s see what he can do when he doesn’t have free reign to drive the ball every time he gets it when Anthony Davis gets back."

6 points and 12 assists. What was worse, there were times in the third quarter this guy did not get the Lakers into their offense smoothly. This will be discussed soon.

D’Angelo Russell had better get healed quick.

The story of the Los Angeles Lakers loss:

Darvin Ham is killing the Lakers with these rotations!

Granted the Lakers have had bad shooting this year, but has anyone stopped to think if Darvin Ham is messing with their rhythm? Again, the Thunder report concerning Austin Reaves…

"There’s no justification for playing Reaves only 25 minutes when he didn’t miss a shot from the field all night and missed a free throw with seconds left in the game. Even that miss was rebounded by the Lakers. All of this efficiency added up to 19 points and 4 assists in those limited minutes!This is a 30 plus minutes player Darvin Ham! Quit playing!"

Checking the notes here…Reaves finished with 6 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. How many minutes? 21. This is ridiculous. Shouldn’t players be rewarded with more minutes for good play? This writer feels like Austin’s agent here.

Remember how hot Troy Brown Jr. was last game and in the first half of this one?

Limited minutes in the second half and no points.

Basketball shooting is about rhythm, confidence and repetition. Something Darvin is killing with these inconsistent rotations.

Minnesota has a crunch-time offensive set and the Los Angeles Lakers do not.

The T’ Wolves ran their offense to perfection. The Lakers were predictable and the zone kept AD from 50 while canceling the others.