MY ACCOUNT
Darvin Ham vowed “we’re going to turn the corner” as “I didn’t come here to lose” after the struggling Los Angeles Lakers suffered a heavy defeat against the Utah Jazz.
The Lakers’ woeful start to the season took another turn for the worse when they were beaten 139-116 at Vivint Arena.
LeBron James was sidelined due to foot soreness as Los Angeles were consigned to a third straight defeat, slipping to 2-8.
Only the Houston Rockets (2-9) are keeping the Lakers off the bottom of the Western Conference, with Ham enduring a difficult start to his tenure as head coach after replacing the sacked Frank Vogel in June.
Ham is adamant the good times will return to Los Angeles.
He told reporters after the Lakers’ latest heavy loss: “I would say this, man. And write it, quote it, however, this may be happening now at the outset of what we’re trying to force to be a culture change in terms of getting us back to being highly competitive on a highly consistent basis, but it’s not going to always be like this.
“We’re going to turn the corner. I didn’t come here to lose. They didn’t bring me here to lose.”
Ham believes his side can benefit from going through such a testing period.
“There is a process involved where we have to go through tough times. Like, I want to bottle this up. I want to embrace it.
“I want to have it and store it so when things are turned around and we get too comfortable and we start complaining about some problems that are not even necessarily problems – problems that winning teams go through – I want to be able to reflect on these times.”
