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Los Angeles Lakers’ Darvin Ham Reacts to ‘Insane’ Narrative About Ducking Denver Nuggets in Playoffs

Originally posted on Hardwood Heroics | By Paolo Songco | Last updated 4/18/24

The Los Angeles Lakers are headed to the Playoffs after their 110-106 Play-In victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night. They now face the defending champs Denver Nuggets in the opening round in what is going to be an extremely tough test for LeBron James and Co.

So much so, that some fans were actually hoping that the Lakers would lose to New Orleans in order to avoid the Nuggets in the opening round.

Los Angeles Lakers News: Darvin Ham Blasts Idea of Ducking Nuggets

After Tuesday’s win, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham was asked to share his thoughts on the Lakers intentionally losing to the Pelicans in an attempt to duck Nikola Jokic and the No. 2 seed Nuggets in the opening round.

Ham was flabbergasted by the “insane” idea, and he did not hold back in expressing how stupid he believes this narrative was:

Lakers coach Darvin Ham to anyone who suggested the team should have intentionally lost to avoid the Nuggets in the first round: “Just someone that got out of the insane asylum.” pic.twitter.com/rgsJncAnz3

— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) April 17, 2024

While it’s true that the Nuggets are an undeniably difficult matchup for the Lakers, there’s also no way LA would intentionally lose the Play-In game against New Orleans. Doing so, as Ham said, would be total insanity.

For what it’s worth, a loss on Tuesday would mean that the Lakers would have needed to secure a Play-In win against the Sacramento Kings to determine the No. 8 seed. Since the Pelicans lost, it’s going to be them who will battle the Kings for a right to face the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round.

This article first appeared on Hardwood Heroics and was syndicated with permission.

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