George Karl insinuates Anthony Davis, not Darvin Ham, should be blamed for Lakers woes

Jesse Cinquini
3 Min Read
Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Former Denver Nuggets head coach George Karl insinuated on X (formerly known as Twitter) that Los Angeles Lakers big man Anthony Davis should be blamed for the team’s woes.

Karl’s post came in light of a report that there is a “deepening disconnect” between Lakers head coach Darvin Ham and the team’s locker room.

The Lakers arguably have been playing their worst basketball of the 2023-24 regular season over the past few weeks. The team has won just two of its last 10 games and is riding a three-game losing streak at the moment.

The last time Los Angeles picked up a victory was when it beat the Charlotte Hornets by 21 points at home on Dec. 28.

While the Lakers haven’t been playing well of late, the same cannot be said of Davis from an individual standpoint. The 30-year-old has scored 20-plus points in each of Los Angeles’ last seven games.

Additionally, he dropped a team-high 29 points to go along with 17 rebounds, six assists, three steals and five blocks in the Lakers’ most recent game against the Miami Heat on Wednesday.

LeBron James, on the other hand, scored just 12 points while shooting 6-of-18 from the field.

Across 33 games played for the Lakers thus far during the 2023-24 regular season — his fifth season as a member of the team — Davis is averaging 25.2 points, 12.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game while shooting 55.2 percent from the field and 36.4 percent from behind the 3-point arc.

For as rough as the past few weeks have been for the Lakers, they are still in the Western Conference playoff picture. They are sitting as the No. 10 seed in the conference at 17-18 and are a game and a half back of the No. 8 seed.

The Lakers’ next two games will come against the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday and Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday. The Clippers are riding a four-game winning streak at the moment, while the Grizzlies are 5-5 over their past 10 games and own the 13th-best record in the Western Conference.

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Jesse is a sports journalist with extensive experience covering the NBA. He has worked as a staff writer covering the Lakers’ dreaded rivals, the Boston Celtics, for SB Nation. He has also covered the New York Knicks for The Knicks Wall.