Deprived of several players, the Lakers lost this Saturday on the Magic floor (101-120). This new defeat fueled the anger of Darvin Ham and LeBron James, who were able to point out the team’s glaring shortcomings in certain areas of play.

Failing to make a very convincing start to the season, they could at least be satisfied with posting a positive result after 5 matches. Despite a fairly tough schedule, the Lakers traveled to Orlando this Saturday with three victories on the clock. On the other hand, it was with many significant absences that they arrived in Florida, and this could be seen on the floor of the Amway Center.

LeBron and Darvin Ham discuss the Lakers’ big flaw

After a tight start to the match, the Angelinos let the Magic take a large lead on the scoreboard that they never managed to fill. In the end, it was with the logical score of 101-120 that they lost, once again displaying a major weakness in terms of defensive rebounding. Weakness that LeBron James did not fail to highlight with palpable annoyance at the end of the meeting:

LeBron James on the Lakers' struggles:

"We got to try to figure it out, because it's definitely been a trend. Offensive rebounds and points off turnovers."

— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation)

November 5, 2023

Regarding offensive rebounds conceded and points conceded after losing the ball, we must find a solution because it has completely become a habit.

Obviously frustrated by this unfortunate tendency of his team, LBJ was subsequently able to see Darvin Ham share his feelings and openly rail against his players:

You can’t set up a game plan to grab rebounds. You just have to want to catch the damn ball, it’s as simple as that… I can’t implement a tactic that will allow us to get more rebounds. There is no tactic I can implement to get more guys under the basket.

Darvin Ham’s statement strongly resembles an admission of helplessness. And what could be more logical, knowing that Orlando took 11 more rebounds than LA in the match (51-40), and especially a lot of offensive rebounds which led to points on second chances (19 against 10 for LA). The Purple & Gold will therefore have to find a solution to avoid suffering like this on the Heat floor on Monday.

The anger that this defeat against the Magic may have generated in LeBron James and Darvin Ham does not prevent them from remaining lucid in their analysis. The Lakers will therefore have to do better on the rebound during their next appearances to calm their bitterness.