Lakers/Hawks Postgame, J.Worthy, AD, Reaves, D-Lo, Coach Ham Reactions | March 18, 2024

Lakers/Hawks Postgame, J.Worthy, AD, Reaves, D-Lo, Coach Ham Reactions | March 18, 2024

The Lakers snap a two game skid they win an easy one over the Hawks which was nice for a change to have something you didn’t have to sweat out at the end the Lakers were fantastic tonight offense had a big one 39 assists ad was back and

DLo was awesome um 183 threes he had six of them tonight 27 and 10 by the way and 10 assists by the way exactly and the in the assist should not go unnoticed because he definitely uh has the pulse of the of of the teammates you know what

They like uh getting it to him at the right moment but he said he was born here you know born in La drafted here so he has a lot of memories here congratulations to DLo there yeah you know you think about you know coming into this this season everybody was

Wondering if he was going to be here was he going to go and I think he embraced this moment as much as possible you know you think about how he had to handle it his name being in trade rooms every 24 seconds and so for me for him to come

Out and have a record like this and some trying times is it shows you his mental toughness because playing this day in this game in this day and age you have to be mental tough especially with social media and the way people can see things and talk about you so big UPS to

Him for having a great season so far I do want to talk ad but before we get there let’s just talk about this team and and the win James it was kind of nice to have an offensive night like this to win easy to sit your guys in the

Fourth quarter I know you guys talk about that a lot that feeling is is is rare these days but it is nice when you get it 136 points I mean the Lakers as a team shot 58% they shot over 41% from three uh they’ve turned into an efficient three-point shooting Team 15

Of 36 and that ball was moving 39 assists uh six guys in double figures and everyone got to play well all the other things you mentioned happen because of the 39 assist that’s really moving the ball and moving the defense so when you move the defense eventually

It’s going to give you something the only way you do that is uh a lot of people touching the ball uh they were made the extra pass on several times you know get everybody involved they’re going to get some good results in the paint threes and everything else you mentioned rob you

See what the starters did right there three guys over 20 hey you see what we can do when we move the ball and share the basketball let’s let’s let’s continue to do this not just against the teams that are subpar you want the teams or the upper e Line to do this see

Because we talked about it before the game how they moved the ball so well against Boston they was they was able to beat Boston and that’s just because you’re going against a good team doesn’t mean you still don’t move the basketball you still have to let this be infectious

You have to say hey this is who you are this is we can be I know you saying Atlanta’s not that good but you move the ball us on teams like this this is when guys get his CER High because okay we just going to go to him yeah so it’s so

Important that they take this game and look at the rest of their schedule and say this is what this is who we have to be from here on out we have to share the basketball because we’re so dangerous when we make everybody a weapon big game

I want to talk ad before we get to that you know people might not know the reason why you started to wear goggles was Kareem had told you after you had an eye injury uh because you were getting tentative to try them and it it changed

Your game I mean I listen people here poked in the eye they think it’s not that serious but those can be scary injuries those can really affect a player how important was it to see ad on the court tonight and then play like that you know it’s a serious hit when

You get hit around the eye because you get headaches you have blurry vision and your peripheral vision sometimes leaves and you just feel un un uncool and uncomfortable and so it was nice to see him come back with authority and with some physicality uh so obviously you

Know it’s it’s a Well healed injury I think he’s good I I I don’t think I’ve ever asked you how painful was that injury very painful happened once in college and the second time I swear to I got about an inch finger in there and it

Was just I I was crying all night long and when I came back to play cuz you know I was going to the cup you know fiercely that was my thing but on when I got close to the to the rim I would shoot a little floater over here or over

Here and Kareem saw it he said I think you’re afraid of contact because he had a serious eye injury in college and the same thing happened to him so uh I recommend goggles um you know it’s a lot of eye injuries especially at the high school level but kids they just don’t

Think it’s cool to have on goggles they get teased a lot but but there’s one guy out there named Kareem mhm c r e a m college player yeah he wears goggles and you know protect your eyes man yeah you know I had the same injury also in

College never talk about where I had a guy stick his finger does that hurt yeah I had to have plastic surgery to repair my eyelid because he ripped my eyelid yeah and so that’s when you talk about eyes you know think about it you got to

Be able to see you got to be able to judge and he was able to see tonight exactly so ad came through and the thing that like ad it didn’t it didn’t deter him from going to the basket didn’t deter him from being you know aggressive

And that’s ad’s whole game you have to be aggressive defensively and offensively all right guys let’s hear from Darvin ham he’s speaking with Mike in the media Darvin coming off a pair of deflating losses what did you make of the energy from LeBron and AD and and

Kind of how the group went along with that tonight I thought it was great we got off to a bit of a slow start in the first couple of three minutes uh but we quickly recalibrated um spotted them 11 to two and then I

Think we went on like a 12 to2 14 to two run and then kind of pretty much then look back um it’s a hell of a young ball Club over there you know their record may not reflected but they’re fighting for a position as well um love Quin SN

He’s like a big brother to me he he’s going to make sure they compete and there’s a lot of you know young weapons over there in spite of being you know without Trey Young um but I’m happy for our guys you know there’s a lot of carryover on the

Defensive end we talked about limited uh limiting um offensive rebounds and doing a better job on the defensive glass for the majority of the game I thought we did a good job doing that uh and then the ball movement you know to end up with 39 assists is huge uh and we

Continue that way you know playing the right way you know guys going to make going to miss shots but long as we give him the opportunity to do so uh and we make quick decisions you have LS like this you have six five six guys six guys

That ended up being in in double figures so thought it was a great night great uh beneficial night on both sides of the ball coach when you talk about guys scoring double figures and winning uh the way that you did by 31 what are the lessons to be learned from such an easy

Victory well again as I told him even though you may be dealing with a surplus in terms of of a lead um there’s things you still can work on you know you you you get up by 20 25 30 you tend to Exhale um as you’re building it 15 17 20

You know again you tend to relax just how can we stay sharp how can we continue to build defensive stops stack defensive stops uh and get better at at at knowing who we’re closing out to being great on the ball um and again once the shot goes up something that

We’ve been struggling with throughout the season how can we defensive rebound better get everybody involved in that part of the game and once we get it not being stagnant you know just playing fast whether it’s running habits in the full court Pace in the half court being physical setting screens and making quick

Decisions Darin you guys have a few game a few days here before your next game Friday against the Sixers uh it’s almost unheard of to have one practice at points in a week at points this season but you opportunity to have a couple how are you going to approach that as a

Coaching staff well tomorrow will be off um had a lot of guys put in a lot of good work um over the course of the last few days um so we’ll give them off uh and come back Wednesday man with a sharp Focus to get better and work on ourselves um

That’s the that’s been the biggest key we’ll get a chance to tighten up some things offensively tight um tighten up some things defensively it’s a couple of new uh wrinkles we want to do on both sides of the ball we’ll get a chance to

Look at uh and then um you know watch a little film and see how we can be the best version of ourselves but just take it one day at time starting with the day off everyone getting off their feet hopefully spending time with their families getting away from it for a

Little bit but then you know once we strike back up on Wednesday you know knowing that we have to be better you know no matter what’s happening around the league or around the positioning with our team if we don’t again try to be the best version of ourselves and

Take care of our own business nothing else will matter Darin uh Lebron was playing Bully ball tonight living at the rim and kind of picked up where he left off in the Golden State game in that second half what have you seen from him in terms of just his mentality of of getting

Downhill and and just relentlessly attacking guys over these last couple games just trying to keep the defense on their heels he’s shooting the ball at a high clip as well um again just trying to keep the defense on their heels um doing it from a little bit everywhere in

In in a variety of different ways whether it’s attacking early in the transition pick and roll game as a Handler screener um posting up uh catch and shoot um just a little bit of everything and then you know the communication defensively doing that as well helping out you know we need to be

Better to help out ad all of us uh so that part of the game as well uh getting hits on bodies and just setting a tone trying to set a tone it’s money time right now um we have no time to waste and so it starts with our two captains

And you know he he’s he’s doing a great job both he and AD of trying to set a tone for the rest of the group D’s on the cuss for breaking the season seal SE single season record for threes um with the roller coaster the seasons he’s had

That we’ve discussed how rewarding is that is that as a coach to just see him I guess being rewarded in that way I think it’s been great man you know he he works at his Craft um it’s great to see how well he’s playing overall but his

Shooting piece he’s hands down the best shooter on our team um and we have a few and so I wanted him to be aggressive from the three-point line as much as possible uh you know he’s shown regular season playoffs you know with those spurts that he can go on from the

Three-point line and just want him to stay aggressive uh and he does a great job of of of trying to mix up his points of attack with and without the ball in his hands he’s one of our best Cutters getting in them teams try to Zone us a

Double team the post you know he’s sneaking in there in the middle of the paint getting little floaters and bunnies but his prowess from from the three-point line you know is is really really Elite uh and we need every bit of it driving along those lines I mean 183 threes is

Going to matter on any team but with this group in particular with the volume that you guys sometimes aren’t able to create um I guess how green of a light does he have and and how Green Room not a green light green room and how important is that to to

What you guys are trying to do offensively that that just like that he needs to get those shots again when when you have teams it opens up so much when he’s coming off a pick and roll we able to set a good screen at the right angle

And teams know they’re going to have to go over or we’re running for running something for him to come off he’s off ball screen they know they got to chase over it opens up everything in the pocket where it’s a quick dump off to a pocket dunk or pocket pass a hockey

Assist pocket pass to someone else on the other side for open shot so just that that that ability to be not only be aggressive but be efficient at a high high level uh from Beyond The Arc it opens up a ton last one hey Dar hey Darin what do you think has

Gone into ruy having such a productive month I think just him keeping it simple not overthinking things man that’s been the biggest thing him just keeping it simple not overthinking you know if you open shoot it you put on the floor get all the way to the rim he’s big strong

Athletic he do a variety of things but just him keeping it simple not overthinking things and his teammates they do a great job of trying to help him through whether he’s got a tough matchup defensively um him getting out finding them open open areas and transition and then

Defensively I mean offensively in the half court just making him a part of that what whatever action is going on and again encouraging him to be extremely aggressive thanks coach thank you got awesome GNA start with you Austin I’m sure DLo will get a fair share of

Questions tonight just with the the way the last two games went you know Sacramento and Golden State uh where did you guys find that Collective energy coming out in this one you know not being deflated kind of playing with playing as Team all the assists and where did that come together tonight in

This one and how do you think you could use that moving forward uh I think we just you know played the game the right way uh obviously shot the ball well and um things were going well and defensively we were you know connected one through five and thought we just had a really

You know good overall performance after the you know super slow start but you know uh what cach say we had 39 assists that’s halftime so I don’t know but yeah I just thought it was overall you know good game yeah d’angel coach just got through talking about it and told you you don’t

Have green light you have the Green Room yeah how does it feel knowing you have that kind of freedom to do it and to shoot whenever and really wherever you want um I mean I just I appreciate him trusting me to to that extent um definitely try to feel like I earned

Something like that and it wasn’t you know given so to know that that’s some something I put the work in to do and put the work in to continue to do I mean seems normal for me humbly Danel you’re not the biggest numbers guy uh but with your

Three-pointers tonight you you tie Nick Van XEL franchise Mark for most in the season uh it’s the longest standing Mark of any team close to 30 years it’s it stood just considering your history with this franchise coming into the league here to have a record um that’s

Significant in what today’s NBA is about what does that mean that’s really cool um honestly just to know that um to get credit for it it’s just it’s just really cool um I said I don’t want to underdo it understate it overdo it I just think

It’s really cool to just be a part of something like that um I think I did something like that in Brooklyn as well just just to get credit for your game and what you work through and showcase it every night just to get credit for it for something like this it’s really

Cool it it’s rare to have three off days maybe a couple practices in between in between games chill I just going to ask what do you guys hope to get take get out of these next few days before your next game a round of golf only a round no three no

Uh obviously you know I think tomorrow’s off and you know after that we’ll you know get together and you know whatever it is if it’s get what you need you know treatment uh shots whatever it is you know I’m sure we’ll get together and um continue to try to get

Better um it would be negligent not to ask you Austin about see this is why like you I know I’m a good reporter um what happened on that first play everybody seen what happened nobody had your view you don’t want my view was it not a charge my my question

Would be is uh not only that play but then they started 112 um what turned for you guys early after all that happened and um what did you see from an intensity um you know I think that might be the first time I’ve ever been like really dunked

On uh so I made it a a a really long time without being very athletic uh picking my spots to get out of the way um tried to take a charge I don’t know uh super athletic kid and you know he got one uh you

Know the longer I play the game I’m sure it’s going to happen again so ain’t too uh ain’t too worried about it it was just you know kind of the whole sequence of you know that being the start and then them you know kind of having that run and I’m sitting there like

That’s what started at all um but we responded really well and uh you know that just gives us you know the the knowing if a team comes out like that then we can you know turn it around pretty quick but of course would be the one to ask that

Question uh D’Angelo my question is about LeBron um he’s always you know he’s been playing at a high level all season but he had 40 points the night before and tonight he was extremely efficient have you noticed him you know I’m not saying he’s at playoff Braun

Mode or anything like that but have you noticed him kind of being even more attentive and being even more focused now that we’re at the home stretch of the regular season I mean yeah I mean his play obviously showing that you know um knowing that there’s what 13 14 games

Left I think that’s everybody has that that that um in the back of their minds knowing that you know we’re coming to the end of the season uh regular season or whatnot trying to get in playoff form mentally and physically um but physically he’s always there mentally I

Feel like he’s always there as well um I mean he still dominates the game at that age so I still feel like he’s there too so yeah I guess thanks everyone start off so max it seems like you’ve been just getting progressively more comfortable just curious as to uh what

You’re kind of seeing out there and and how you would evaluate kind of where you are U personally this season um yeah well starting with this game I I was really aggressive which is what I liked um I think at times I can be a little back and forth with my aggression I

Think um for me it’s just being consistent with it and um no matter what the outcome of my aggression is as long as I am aggressive then usually good things will happen and so I think it’s been a steady Progressive growth throughout the season um it has been up

And down there’s been games I’ve been aggressive and then other games I haven’t so for me trying to find that consistent line and continuing to try to contribute to this team what do you think the key is to you kind of maintaining that consistency and especially like closing out the season

With that I think it’s just a mindset to be honest it’s just uh mentally being in the right head space and you know coping with certain emotions that you have before games and you know things of that nature so it’s all within my control which is you know the positive thing so

That’s why you know I’m looking forward to building on a game like this hey Max um I I know scoring isn’t necessarily your role on this team but uh when you kind of get off to a good start like you did tonight do you start thinking about like your career high or

Anything like that or are you just out there playing I thought about it for sure um I think I had nine points in the first half 11 in the first three quarters so I was thinking about it for sure but I didn’t want to force it you

Know I just wanted to let the game come to me and tonight wasn’t that night but it was a good start for sure and um you know I’ll have plenty more games where I can get that career high Max you mentioned the es and flows the ups and

Downs as a young player when you have those bad moments and those struggle moments how do you bounce back from that and remember you know what got you here and what you can do even when the results aren’t there yeah uh I mean I’ve done a lot of work mentally you know on

My head and my mental side of the game it is tough for sure being a young player you want to you know succeed as much as you can and I think you know you got to get as much experience as you can as well so uh for me it’s sort of just

Detaching a situation and you know sometimes I make up stories in my head when I don’t play well and things of that nature so detach from that seeing what the reality is and then you know just putting one foot in front of the other um and realizing the spot that I’m

In is you know a lucky spot for me playing for the Lakers you know that’s something that not a lot of people can say so being grateful and then detaching from situations where you know everything feels like it’s going wrong uh do you draw any inspiration from kind of what you’ve seen from

D’Angelo Russell and what he’s been able to do in this kind of second half of the the season and also just you know um very near to uh breaking the single season three-point record yeah I think uh the thing I I look for and watch most

With DLo is not even just it’s not really on the court we all know he can he can really play basketball but it’s the way he he approaches the game and then I think mentally too just the way you know it seems like when he’s out there he really is just really Carefree

Doesn’t really care about outcomes um and really isn’t worried about what other people think of him so I think that’s something that I can draw and I do draw inspiration from for sure even off the court watching you know just watching the way he carries himself and

He speaks his mind and you know I think a lot of people just in life in general are sort of afraid to say what they want to say because of what people will say about him so that’s something that he certainly isn’t a part of and so that’s

Something I draw inspiration from thank you Max thank you guys 22 and 15 for ad let’s go back inside the Laker locker room he’s with bre ad can you walk us through the last 48 hours with your eye injury and obviously looks like everything’s okay today uh yeah just going to the eye

Doctors um figuring things out uh that’s all I can tell y’all right now what do you feel feel like you’re not telling us something no I’m not telling y’all something for sure um but it looked fine tonight yeah yeah just got to do a couple more things but

Um after those things everything should be fine all right when you look at what DLo has done this whole season tied Nick Van AEL for most threes in in a Lakers season what do you think of his play phenomenal I mean obviously he can score it well

Now his shooting ability has been great uh for us all season um you know he gets hot any any minute uh I told him he could have he could have broke it if you didn’t had a uh the bad three he shot uh I think the

Start the fourth he just threw it up there and he said yeah I know so um but he’s able to man get going you know fill up the stats she would have scoring um and you know it’s a it’s a big uh you know thing for him big thing for us as a

Team you know obviously there’s been a lot going on around DLo and just to be able to do that and US Embrace him and he sees that feels the love uh that’s good for him so um he for sure break it on Friday did um did you consider wearing some

Sort of goggles or was that ever on the table in terms of like some protective highear was that an option uh no uh I’ve been through that phase in high school that’s I’m out of that pH I’m not no I mean obviously if the if the

Doctors told me that it was that I needed it you know I asked that question obviously and uh I didn’t need it um it said if I wanted to but but I didn’t need it so uh no I wasn’t I wasn’t planning on wearing it we saw an film in the

Immediate aftermath just kind of how it swalled up on you pretty quickly um how impaired was your yeah um I just couldn’t see the uh uh corne abrasion was actually like right in the middle of my my eye so uh it wasn’t like off to the side so

Anytime I look it was just like Blurry um my eye was swollen um I thought my eye was like open but it wasn’t uh just kept watering uh just felt like um sand was just in my eye so I just it was just better at close and I couldn’t uh

Couldn’t really see so um just been icing it uh Saturday after the first quarter and just um it got better um like later that night um swelling went down uh just kind of say like in darkness um pend then went to go see the doctor on Sunday morning and

Uh like some more things that we end up finding out but uh yeah it was it was really tough for me to see what percent is your vision at now uh went to the our doctor and uh my vision is good I still I’m still 2015

So feel good about that but uh I can see clearly I got miles dilated today so uh before it still like a little blurry just from the dilation but um I’m good something like this happened to you in the bubble yeah was it the same type of

Deal yep same deal yeah um it’s been pretty rare for you guys to have a week where you’re going to have three days without a game before you play the Sixers what can this group get out of practice time yeah I mean when we get guys let me rephrase that for y’all uh

We get to try to get healthy and uh get some rest um just from the hectic schedule we’ve been playing uh practice and and work on ourselves you know having three days you know obviously tomorrow probably be off and then get the half Wednesday working ourselves Thursday to kind of go over

Philly probably do some more stuff on ourselves and um going to Philly on Friday but uh we haven’t had much practice time to get on the floor uh and we’re able to really um get after in terms of uh going over you know what we need to

Get better and being able to actually you know script it go get up and down and uh really get after it so uh it’ll be good for us have you seen really ticket came to another level this past month uh you know he’s shooting the bar extremely well um he’s guarding you know

We obviously going to him a lot on the post you know they usually have smaller guys on them so he’s been doing a good job of that um but impressed me a lot he’s been able to um read the double teams um you know he don’t pass out of him but he’ll

He’ll go around and he’ll go around it and score so uh you know he just been very efficient for us um especially just with his with his catch and shooting you know he’s been able to you know knock down big sh for us and shoot the ball

Extremely well so um and I told him it comes with you know uh getting paid how you got to elevate you know to the level that we think you um well the team you know thought you were worth for getting the money and he’s been you know been

Exceptional for us it’s been a little bit it might be a little bit still until Vanderbilt returns it sounds like what could be a while as well you have played a little bit bigger with ruy starting and like Jackson now has played a little bit with you

How do you feel about that alignment and just given sort of the lack of some of that other big depth how important is that for you guys as you get down the stretch yeah we still trying to figure it out defensively um you I think Jackson um being that

Jackson lineup has been good for us uh you know going big with ruy uh starting has been good for us um there a lot of things we can do defensively but you know obviously it’s it’s t tols you know v um with the de size and then what he’s able to do

Guarding smaller guys at 610 so um trying to make up for it with uh put the other guys you know our team defense try different you know defensive lineups and um try to hold it down until you know if if it gets back what have you seen from

Uh from braon these last couple games in terms of just how locked in he’s been on both sides of the ball yeah um no braon Bron obviously is you know was that time of the year uh shoot the ball extremely well been in attack mode fing guys um

You know he’s been locking in defensively um so this it’s that time of the year you know especially for us you know uh where every game is playoff game so uh around this time of the year you know he CH to ready lock in and and get the job done thank thank you

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