The Los Angeles Lakers didn’t play a perfect game on Tuesday night but the team was still able to escape with a 1-0 series lead behind a dominant effort from Anthony Davis. The Golden State Warriors had no answers for Davis, who played every single minute of the second half to power the Lake Show to a win.
Golden State went on a big 14-0 run in the fourth quarter to tie the game, stealing all the momentum in the process. D’Angelo Russell then hit a big contested shot near the rim and the Lake Show was able to get a stop on the other end.
After LeBron James made just one of two free throws the Warriors had a chance to tie the game with a three. The shot is definitely going to go to Stephen Curry or Klay Thompson, right? Nope. Jordan Poole ended up taking the biggest shot of the game and missed it to give the Lakers a win.
To cope with this miss, Warriors fans started placing the blame on Lakers head coach Darvin Ham. Ham very lightly stepped on the court and raised his hand when Poole shot and Warriors fans on Twitter are having a field day about how that should have been called.
Look at Ham pic.twitter.com/VeCyPDbw2V
— Russillo (@ryenarussillo) May 3, 2023
Just look at the replies and quote tweets to Ryen Rusillo’s tweet above. There are a lot of Warriors fans that genuinely seem to think this is daming evidence against Ham, when in reality, it is a nothing burger.
Lakers’ Darvin Ham is not to blame for Jordan Poole’s miss.
Here is an idea: Poole simply missed his shot and Ham was doing his job as a head coach and was trying to tell his guy (Jarred Vanderbilt) to get his hand up to contest the shot.
Sure, Ham’s foot may have snuck its way onto the court and by definition, the referee could call something on that. But if NBA referees started calling fouls every single time a head coach’s foot crossed the line then there would be infinitely more stoppages in NBA games than there already are.
Plus, the side angle of this “evidence” dispels any idea that Ham actually had any kind of impact on Poole’s shot.
https://twitter.com/JTTL21/status/1653623468150386689
If Ham’s hand really disrupted Poole’s shot then the Warriors’ guard is in for a rude awakening when he is playing on the road in Los Angeles. If an outstretched hand that is six feet away is bothering him then just imagine when an arena full of people are yelling at him every time he shoots from three.
Once again, this is a nothing burger, regardless of how much Warriors fans want to say otherwise.