Former Los Angeles Lakers forward Lamar Odom believes that Lakers fans shouldn’t be questioning head coach Darvin Ham’s rotations in the playoffs.
.@LamarOdom says Laker fans need to trust Darvin Ham’s rotations 👀 pic.twitter.com/QGV1Dl7zuU
— The LADE Show (@TheLADEShow) April 28, 2023
“For all the Laker fans out there — we were in a terrible hole to start the season, right?” Odom said. “Got out of the hole, and now we’re 3-2 over the two seed. It’s not a good time to question the captain.”
While the Lakers’ 17-point loss in Game 5 was a tough one to stomach, Los Angeles still has a chance to close out this series at home on Friday night.
Los Angeles jumped out to a 3-1 series lead over the Grizzlies, and it’s hard to ask the team to win every game in Memphis, especially since the Grizzlies went 35-6 at home during the regular season.
Ham made a great move at the end of the regular season to put Austin Reaves in the starting lineup, which has really helped the team with his scoring boost.
The issue for the Lakers at points in this series has been the non-Anthony Davis minutes, as the team hasn’t really had an answer at the backup center position. Wenyen Gabriel saw minutes for Los Angeles in that role in Game 5.
Odom, who won two NBA titles during his NBA career, knows what it takes to win the NBA Playoffs. He also trusts Ham after he coached the Lakers out of a slow start and got them into the playoffs as the No. 7 seed.
Los Angeles closed the regular season extremely strong, showing that the moves the team made at the trade deadline were necessary to turn this roster into a playoff contender.
The Lakers would love to close things out on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena and avoid heading back to FedExForum for Game 7.
The Grizzlies have already shown that they are confident in getting back to Memphis for a Game 7, so Los Angeles doesn’t want to give them any more momentum in this series.
It will be interesting to see how Ham handles everyone’s minutes in Game 6 with a chance to close out the series. The Lakers and Grizzlies are scheduled to tip off at 7:30 p.m. PST.
