Lakers’ Darvin Ham on Defending Nikola Jokić: ‘Have to Keep Throwing Stuff at Him’

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The Los Angeles Lakers had no answers for Nikola Jokić during Saturday night’s 124-114 loss to the Denver Nuggets, as the superstar big man went off for 35 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.

After the game, head coach Darvin Ham told reporters that the philosophy against the two-time defending MVP is essentially to throw the kitchen sink at him and hope something works.

“You just have to fight as hard as you can for as long as you can and hope he misses,” he said. “Hope he misses. … You just have to keep throwing stuff at him.”

The Lakers have had zero answers for either Jokić or the Nuggets of late, however, losing eight straight games to the team, including the 4-0 sweep in the Western Conference Finals during last year’s playoffs. This season alone, he’s averaging a cool 29.3 points per game against Los Angeles.

Then again, he’s torching most teams, putting up 25.8 points, 12.3 rebounds and 9.3 assists per game, all while shooting 58 percent from the floor and 34.5 percent from three. Nobody has figured out a way to reliably slow down the 29-year-old.

LeBron James confirmed as much.

“No,” he told reporters when asked if there’s an answer for Jokić at the moment, given his level of play. “There is none.”

The issue for the Lakers is that it’s not just Jokić—he also has a surrounding roster that perfect complements his unique skill set..

Jamal Murray was lights out in the second half on Saturday night, putting up 17 of his 24 points (to go along with 11 dimes). Michael Porter Jr. had 25 points in the game, hitting all five of his attempted threes. Aaron Gordon yet again did the dirty work on both ends, contributing 18 points, nine rebounds, five assists and a steal. And Justin Holiday and Peyton Watson combined to score 20 points off the bench.

There’s a reason the Nuggets (42-19) won the title a year ago and look primed to make a run at a repeat. The Lakers, meanwhile, dropped to 33-29 and now sit in 10th place in the Western Conference.

If they do manage to escape the Play-In Tournament and reach the postseason, the one team they assuredly would prefer to avoid would be these Nuggets. They simply have no answers for them, or Jokić, at this point.