Darvin Ham Was Up To His Old Tricks After Lakers Dropped Crucial Game to Kings

The Los Angeles Lakers dropped another winnable game on Wednesday evening to the Sacramento Kings, sparking even more frustration surrounding the team. As they fight for their postseason lives, each game that the Lakers play gets magnified.

Sacramento is right ahead of them in the standings, so losing to them twice in one week hurt their chances to climb the standings. Poor execution and bad shooting performances from L.A.'s stars doomed them, giving the Kings even more of an edge over the Lakers.

After the game, head coach Darvin Ham seemed to sum up the loss by using a common theme from the year, effort. He mentioned that the team can't skip the details within a game and that they need a better next-play mentality.

Anytime the Lakers have lost, Ham has pointed to effort or mentality. At some point, it stops being about that and the blame starts to be pointed at the coaching staff.

Ham has come under fire all season long for his coaching tactics, leaving many to believe that he will ultimately be let go after the conclusion of the year. His rotations and coaching style have left a bad taste in the mouths of many players, which can be seen in how they speak after games. 

Multiple players have hinted at him not knowing what he is doing, which has added fuel to the fire about him leaving at the end of the year. Ham led this team to the Western Conference Finals a year ago but has easily regressed in terms of his coaching. 

At times, it looks like the locker room has tuned him out, which is a death sentence for a coach's time with a team. Ham will do what he can the rest of the way, but barring another long playoff run, it seems that his time in Los Angeles will most likely come to an end.