Darvin Ham Issues Statement on Dennis Schroder After Lakers Lose to Mavericks

The Los Angeles Lakers need to be completely focused as they attempt to make a playoff push down the stretch of the season. Unfortunately, they’ve fallen into a bit of a lull, as they have now lost two games in a row at the worst possible time.

On Friday night, they dropped their game against the Dallas Mavericks in a heartbreaking fashion. Maxi Kleber nailed a buzzer-beating three-point shot at the end of the game. After the contest, Darvin Ham spoke about the team’s shot selection, name-dropping Dennis Schroder and others for their shots.

“Dennis, Austin [Reaves], D-Lo [D’Angelo Russell], I mean, they’ve made those shots,” Ham said via the NBA Interviews YouTube channel. “You just got to trust your players and trust that they’re going to make plays and be aggressive, and sometimes, it’s a make-or-miss league. Those same looks, you don’t even mention them when they go in. And I’ve seen those same looks go in. But I thought maybe the ball could have hopped around a little bit better. I thought we were trying to do the right thing and play the right way. But again, we were aggressive. Thus the 31 free throws. But you have to make more than 19. And you can’t foul shooters. We had some really bad fouls throughout the game. But again, we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. As tough as this loss is, we got to pick ourselves up, wipe off the dust, and get ourselves out of the dirt. Refill our cups up and come out and try to get a win on Sunday.”

It was a brutal game that saw the Lakers falter in the final moments of the contest. Anthony Davis sagged off of Kleber on the last play, and on the previous defensive possession, he fouled Kleber on a three-point shot. He made all three free throws.

As for Schroder, he didn’t shoot very efficiently against the Mavericks. He finished the game with 16 points, one rebound, and eight assists on 5-of-12 shooting from the field and 0-of-4 shooting from behind the three-point line.

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Anthony Davis Discusses Final Play vs. Mavs

In addition, after the game, Davis spoke about the final possession of the game. He talked about his decision to sag off of Kleber and how it happened.

“With seven seconds, he [Irving] dribbled almost the whole clock out,” Davis said via the NBA Interviews YouTube channel. “Me just reading him. Knowing that he’s probably going to take the last shot. He goes into his actual shooting motion and just comes down with it. He doesn’t shoot it. So, when he goes up [and] it kind of pulled me in. I was going for the rebound. Thought he was shooting it. He made a pass to Kleber. He makes the shot.”

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Austin Reaves Sounds Off on Lakers

After the contest, Reaves spoke about the mood in the locker room.

“I thought the mood was exactly what it should have been,” Reaves said of the Lakers locker room via the NBA Interviews YouTube channel. “[We have to] go in tomorrow, watch a lot of film, and learn from our mistakes. I think we’ve bounced back pretty good with this group after losses. I don’t know if we’ve had back-to-back losses until now. But we got to figure out how we move on and play the next game.”