There was A LOT to unpack following Wednesday's epic, and extremely costly, collapse against the Sacramento Kings at the Crypt, one that fundamentally changed the arc of the season for the Lakers. A win didn't guarantee anything, but would have been a big boost to aspirations of finishing higher in the Western Conference, whether at the good end of the play in bracket, or even moving up to a top six position.
With that loss, those dreams are basically shot. The Lakers could, with a strong push, maybe get to the eight. Anything higher than that feels unlikely, especially with the schedule in front of them.
After, there were some fractures visible. LeBron James pointed to Anthony Davis's second foul as a turning point. The subtext - this stuff is happening too much lately, and needs to stop. Most folks pointed to a Lakers defense that totally collapsed, which points fingers at Davis, who pointed them back at the coaching staff for a scheme he felt the Kings were consistently exploiting and leaving him in positions to fail. Where he's not normally willing to even open the door to publicly criticizing the coaching staff, on Wednesday he did.
All of this points to lingering tensions between Darvin Ham and the locker room that, while periodically tamped down by better stretches of play, clearly can't be considered healed. And it's hard to believe after 64 games, that's going to change all that much.
Meanwhile, Davis also had some interesting things to say about seeding, after the Lakers won against Oklahoma City earlier in the week. In a lot of ways, those comments tie in nicely to what was said after the Sacramento game, and point to some fundamental truths about this team.
HOSTS: Andy and Brian Kamenetzky
SEGMENT 1: Did AD put some daylight between himself and Darvin Ham?
SEGMENT 2: What's different about this year and last, when looking at Darvin's work.
SEGMENT 3: What did AD mean when he said the Lakers don't care about their seed?
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