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Darvin Ham receives harsh chant from Lakers fans as Nuggets take 3-0 lead

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Los Angeles Lakers fans have seen just about enough of Darvin Ham.

The Lakers made it 11 straight losses to the Denver Nuggets on Thursday, falling in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series 112-105. Once again, the Lakers blew a double-digit lead (as they already had in both Games 1 and Game 2) and brought to themselves to the brink of elimination as Denver took a commanding 3-0 series advantage.

In the final minute or so of the fourth quarter with the Nuggets on the verge of victory, Lakers fans busted out a harsh message about head coach Darvin Ham.

They started chanting, “Fire Darvin!” and could be heard doing so on the TNT broadcast.

Jovan Buha of The Athletic confirmed that “Fire Darvin!” was indeed what was being chanted.

Ham is in his second season as head coach of the Lakers and has led the team to a respectable record of 90-74 (.549) as well as a Western Conference Finals berth. But they were already swept out of the playoffs by the Nuggets last season and are now in grave danger of meeting the exact same fate this time around.

Windhorst: Lakers’ Anthony Davis Blamed Darvin Ham for G2 Loss with Postgame Comments

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Los Angeles Lakers star center Anthony Davis made pointed comments about the coaching in the team’s devastating Game 2 loss to the Denver Nuggets, and one expert believes they indicate a deeper problem with head coach Darvin Ham.

While debating Davis’ comments on Thursday’s episode of First Take, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said they show that the big man feels that Ham should be held accountable for the Lakers blowing a 20-point lead and falling into a 0-2 hole in their first-round playoff series.

“You guys are dancing around your point, which is that Anthony Davis blamed Darvin Ham for this loss,” Windhorst said around the 5:20 mark. “That is exactly what he did. He did that very clearly with those comments.”

Lakers’ Ham not changing lineup as Nuggets eye sweep in Game 4

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If the Los Angeles Lakers’ season ends with a sweep in Game 4 of their first-round series against the Denver Nuggets, Darvin Ham is going down with the same guys who got them there.

“I’m not changing my starting lineup,” Ham said Friday after L.A. had a film session in lieu of practice.

Down 0-3 against the Nuggets a year ago in the Western Conference finals, Ham took D’Angelo Russell out of the starting lineup for Game 4, which L.A. lost 113-111.

This time, with Russell going scoreless on 0-for-7 shooting in Game 3 (0-for-6 from 3) and seemingly disengaged from the team in the fourth quarter Thursday as he sat on the end of the bench by himself while L.A. huddled, Ham is sticking with his point guard.

“You want to give your players a chance to make good for themselves,” Ham said. “There were questions about that after Game 1 and you saw what we did in Game 2. He got back in the gym, as he’s always done, and worked on his stuff. And he provided a great source of income in Game 2. Although we came up short, he was one of the reasons we were able to be in the game.”

Indeed, Russell — who declined to speak to reporters Friday again after also declining to do so in the postgame window following Game 3 — shook off a 6-for-20 shooting performance to start the series by scoring 23 points in Game 2 and tying a franchise record for playoff 3s in a game, going 7-for-11.

“You have to trust your players,” Ham said. “And just believe in them. And when they see that belief, then they tend to perform at a high level.”

Lakers forward Rui Hachimura said Ham showed clips of L.A. playing at a high level in the first quarter of Game 3 — jumping to an 8-0 lead and holding a 33-23 edge heading into the second — to let the Lakers see how they can hold their ground against the defending champs, despite Denver having now won 11 straight games in the matchup.

“We watched it and we talked about how we were going to continue that,” Hachimura said. “Just the same energy, same way we communicate, [the way] we do everything on the court.”

Hachimura said that the Nuggets’ continuity of their roster has been the difference-maker.

“We just don’t have enough experience,” Hachimura said, alluding to the fact that much of the roster came together at the trade deadline about 15 months ago. “They’ve been together for like five years.”

So, Hachimura was asked, even though the Lakers are on the brink of being swept for the second straight year and L.A. is a franchise that prides itself on its 17 championships as the standard, is this group worth keeping together to gain that experience?

“In my opinion, yes,” Hachimura said. “We have the guys here. We have the talent, for sure. I don’t think anybody can beat us, just the talent-wise. We just got to put everything together. … We have the guys that can beat any team in this league.”

Any team except Denver.

The Lakers will get a crack at it again Saturday (8:30 ET, ABC) for a chance to extend their season.

If not, they’ll begin an offseason during which many more questions about the viability of this group staying together will swirl.

“Guys are irritated, frustrated, fed up, ready to make a change in terms of not continuously going down this road,” Ham said. “And the overall theme [today] was just our mindset. [We can] belabor the problems and what’s gone on up to this point or shift our focus to, ‘How do we stay alive?'”

A win Saturday would provide life to the season for a few more days, at the very least.

“We’ve played some good basketball against Denver, it’s just that we haven’t been able to pull these out,” Ham said. “So hopefully tomorrow will be different.”