Darvin Ham commits fireable offense in Lakers’ last-second loss to Heat

After falling to the Orlando Magic on Saturday, the Los Angeles Lakers continued their Florida swing of the schedule looking to stay above .500 against the Miami Heat. The outcome was not what fans or the team were hoping for, as Los Angeles fell to a Heat team that has been uninspiring thus far this season.

Anthony Davis suffered an injury in the first half of the game and returned to action in the second half only to be sent back to the locker room. Somehow, that was not the most frustrating takeaway from the game as Davis’ injury does not appear to be serious.

Instead, the most frustrating takeaway from the game is how it ended. With a one-point deficit and a chance to win it, LeBron James kicked the ball out to Cam Reddish in the corner for the three. Reddish, who was shooting 15.4% from three heading into the game, predictably bricked the three.

Fans have taken their frustration out on head coach Darvin Ham, who has shown a lot of faith in Reddish thus far this season.

Cam Reddish taking Lakers’ last shot was all Darvin Ham’s call.

Some may try to argue that it is unlikely that Ham purposefully drew up a play for Reddish to take the last shot of the game. The ball was obviously in LeBron’s court. LeBron drove to the rim, saw the defense collapse, and made the right basketball play to pass to the open guy who had one of the easiest shots a player can have.

But that is not what happened. Cameras caught Ham drawing up the play during the timeout and Reddish mimicked exactly what Ham drew up. Ham, quite literally, drew up a play for Cam Reddish to take the game-winning three.

https://twitter.com/HoodiiBron/status/1721727711323074704

Ham doubled down on the last shot of the game, telling reporters after the game that Reddish had an awesome look. While that is certainly true, the fact of the matter still remains that Reddish should not be taking the biggest shot of the game.

You could make the case that Reddish should not even be out there to begin with for the final possession of the game. To draw up a play for him? That is asinine. There are so many better options to take that last shot than Reddish.

Literally anyone on the court would have been a better option than Reddish. Don’t want LeBron to drive to the rim and take a contested layup? Fine. Give the ball to Austin Reaves. Let Christian Wood space the floor. Anything other than a 15% shooter taking a three.

This is just bad coaching by Ham. Ham has had some kind of infatuation with Reddish (likely because of his past coaching him). This could come back to bite the Lakers long-term.