Darvin Ham praises effort, fight of shorthanded Lakers against Nuggets despite end of five-game win skid

As their winning skid comes to an end on Monday, Darvin Ham is nothing but proud of what his Los Angeles Lakers team demonstrated against the Denver Nuggets.

Facing the top-seeded Nuggets team without their one-two punch stars in LeBron James and Anthony Davis, the rookie head coach still commended the shorthanded Lakers on their losing effort.

“Kudos our guys — they kept fighting and just had a couple bad turnovers, couple balls that didn’t go our way, couple shots didn’t go down,” Ham said following the 122-109 loss, via Associated Press’s Pat Graham. “The group that was out there, they were competitive, then gave it their all until we couldn’t give anymore.”

Having a shorthanded unit and depleted slate of role players, the Lakers have saw their five-game winning streak pounded to dust, but they were able to keep a fight down in crunch time in face of the gigantic Nuggets team.

Leading by as many as 20 in the final frame, the Nuggets were minimally shocked by the Lakers’ mini-run. But thanks to Jamal Murray, the Nuggets went on to fully secure the victory.

The Lakers struggled throughout the match on their shooting efficiency from long distance, draining just 28.6 percent of their 28 total attempts. They were also outrebounded on the glass, tallying 44 against the 55 boards of the Nuggets.

Denver was powered by the 34-point output by Jamal Murray, with Nikola Jokoc dropping another major triple-double with 14 markers, 16 assists and 11 boards. 

Russell Westbrook came up big off the bench with 25 points, seven boards and seven assists for L.A., while Thomas Bryant notched a double-double with his 17 points and 10 rebounds.

The Lakers will fly back home and will set to kick off a lengthy five-game home stand starting on Thursday against the Dallas Mavericks.