DISPLAY: Darvin Ham, the head coach of the Lakers, has announced his retirement because of…

When the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets squared off in Game 1 of their first-round series, it was finally their chance to show that they could compete with the defending champion team.

Los Angeles led by twelve points at the half after getting out to a fast start. But as has happened in every meeting between the two clubs, Denver rallied and won the first game in the second half.

Once the team went behind, head coach Darvin Ham’s strategy appeared to falter, and he gave a detailed explanation of how the game changed.

Ham stated, “I believe it began toward the conclusion of the first half, at the end of the second.” It’s difficult to see them go on that 22-11 run, for whatever reason. It is rare for a championship team to defeat itself. Even if they might get out to a sluggish start, occasionally miss shots, and turn the ball over, you can still defeat yourself. We must take the initiative.

“That group scored eighteen points with 15 offensive rebounds, which is a striking fact. You cannot permit them to acquire more than one item. As a group, you must make every effort to gang rebound and keep them to one possession. They have guys who predict that the ball will go in twice if they watch it go in once. Murray is a handful when he’s out there with Jokic; the two of them are a handful together. Obviously, Murray was out there by himself. Jokic will expose all clever basketball plays to the world, therefore our only task is to become more focused and flawless.

Ham maintained his belief that the Lakers might win the series even after the setback. “I firmly think that this will continue to be a fiercely competitive series. Give them credit—they held serve, they’re a strong home club that’s generally difficult to beat, but everyone is going to go crazy over one game.

It’s necessary to start over from scratch. We accomplished a great deal tonight. Just that one obvious rebounding component that we need to solve.

The purple and gold can win or lose in one game, but if they hope to tie the series in Game 2, Los Angeles and Ham will need to play much better basketball.