The Los Angeles Lakers were on the wrong side of history on Christmas day.
They were up by 11 points at half-time, then finished the third quarter with a 19-point deficit.
That 30-point swing was after allowing the Dallas Mavericks to put up 51 points against them in the third quarter, the highest-scoring quarter of any Christmas day game.
Needless to say, you have to give coach Jason Kidd his flowers for making the right adjustments in the locker room.
Nonetheless, one also has to condemn how passive the Lakers were after being outscored by 30 points over a 12-minute stretch.
That’s why LeBron James seemingly took a shot at coach Darvin Ham after the tough loss, stating that the Lakers didn’t do a lot to change things once the Mavs stormed back in:
“I mean, they made adjustments at half-time. They countered what we were doing at half-time. We didn’t make the proper adjustments once they made their adjustments…You’re never going to win a game if you give up 51 in a quarter, so that’s it, it’s simple,” James said after the game. “If you see the same coverage over and over and over, at some point, you’ll figure it out when you have a high basketball I.Q. Which Luka has, obviously.”
“We didn’t make the proper adjustments once they made their adjustments.” @KingJames on today’s loss and playing on Christmas. pic.twitter.com/REKTqB1HTm
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) December 25, 2022
First-year coach Ham has tried to establish a defensive identity with the Lakers, but the team has failed to do so through the first half of the season.
Notably, there will be no turning back once the best player on the team starts losing faith in the coach.
