The Lakers Latest Fall Guy

Hey, remember when the Lakers were gonna win the West? Yeah, me neither. But about 10 seconds ago, Car Flag Nation was all about it. All Car Flag Nation needed to see was that win over the Thunder on Monday night and all of a sudden, everyone was back on the bandwagon. Don’t even try to deny it Laker honks, you know exactly who you are.

And you know exactly where you pivoted to next, Car Flag Nation. When you were giving yourselves whiplash jumping right back off the bandwagon. And then running to get your torches and your pitchforks out. So you could once again go in on Darvin Ham.

Look, Darv is not exactly lighting the world on fire in this job, we all know this.  And I’m not going to sit here and say he’s the second coming of pop. Or Phillip. Or Larry Brown.  Or hell, even Kurt Rambis but damn do you guys hate this dude. And it’s not just the Laker honks who despise this dude, it’s seems like the Lakers themselves. It’s almost like every time things get close to getting on track under the Ham, the Lakers go straight in the tank just so Darv can’t get any credit. 

It’s like the Lakers were looking around last night when they were blowing out the Kings by 19 in the first quarter like… what are we doing here? What are we doing? This is actually a huge game. We can’t actually play well and actually win. Then Darv will get credit. We can’t let THAT happen.

So they didn’t. In fact, from that exact point, things went straight off a cliff. The Kings had the lead by the middle of the second quarter and never looked back. And then LeCap limped off before the game ended despite another incredible performance to make a crappy night even crappier. 

We actually have the audio of LeGM’s reaction to re-aggravating his ankle injury last night. 

Sounds painful. But he says it’s just a “wear and tear” injury. Which makes a lot of sense actually. Considering he’s a 39 year old basketball geriatric who is absolutely carrying the biggest and most bloated franchise in the Association on his back right now. 

Seriously, does any other Laker want to step the hell up and help this old man out? These dudes are clearly happy to just stand around and watch the 39 year old put up 31 points with 13 dimes on 10-16 shooting. They’re just bearing witness to the greatness. They have no interest in contributing to the greatness.

Ok, Rui Hachimura stepped up last night, fine. But you know who didn’t step up last night? Anthony Street Clothes Davis. I’ll give Street Clothes this much, he hasn’t spent very much time in his Street Clothes this year. He’s actually had a pretty good year, at least by the numbers.

Problem is, there are still too many games when this dude disappears or doesn’t step up. There are too many games when Street Clothes seems like he’s in Street Clothes even though he’s actually in uniform running around on the court.

They needed more than 14 points from Street Clothes last night. They just didn’t get more. And then after the game the dude had the nerve to toss a whole bucket of shade on everyone’s favorite punching bag, Coach Ham.

Yeah we get it, that’s your code for the head coach sucks. It’s totally the Ham’s fault that you let Sabonis drop a triple double on your head. It’s totally the Ham’s fault that Sabonis is now 9-0 against you in his career. 

Somehow that’s a real stat, Sabonis is 9 and 0 against Street Clothes. Yo AD, you might want to just keep Sabonis’ name out your bleeping mouth.

But sure, all of this is on Darv. Clearly, everyone is frustrated with Darv. Meanwhile, Darv is blaming the frustration itself, check this out. 

Ahhhh so it’s the frustration that’s making the Lakers into cowards. It’s the frustration’s fault that this team doesn’t compete harder in must-win games. It was probably frustration’s idea to hang that ridiculous Ears Invitational banner too. 

I’m not trying to let lecap totally off the hook either, as spectacular as he is. And he is spectacular. But if reports this week are to be believed, he’s not helping out the Ham. In fact, if you believe those reports he’s not even listening to the Ham. He’s completely ignoring the Ham. He's actively undermining the Ham. And of course, if LeFib is actively undermining the coach, everyone else is gonna ignore the coach too.

And you know why I believe those reports… because this looks like a team that ignores their head coach. And sounds like a team that hates their head coach. And we all know how this is gonna end.

We all know something else too: tossing the Ham into the chipper isn't gonna fix bleep. It's not gonna make anything any MORE than tossing Frank Vogel into the WOOD chipper did. But go off anyway, Car Flaggers. Put it all on the Ham. Why live in reality when you can just live in the Laker myopia that is Car Flag Nation? Again, I’m not saying this dude is the second coming of Pat Riley, but if LeBron is going to own the team team and gm the team, he may as well just coach the team: he’s already doing it anyway: just the give the dude the title. Then he can sit up there and take all the heat that the ham takes on the nightly on social and at the podium for all the decisions lecap is making himself anyway.