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Lakers News: Darvin Ham Discusses Russell Westbrook's Struggles In Closing Out Halves Friday

L.A.'s head coach spoke about his sixth man's issues against the Sacramento Kings.

During your Los Angeles Lakers' latest loss, on Friday against the visiting Sacramento Kings, a big problem for the club was that it let late leads in both its second and conclusive fourth quarter slip away.

As you'll no doubt remember, Los Angeles led the Sacramento Kings by 13 points with 1:31 left in the Friday contest's first half. The Kings went on a 14-5 tear to end the half, narrowing the Lakers' advantage to just 60-56. Then, after leading 114-112 with 2:13 remaining in the second half of regulation, the Lakers committed a series of gaffes to allow Sacramento go on a definitive 8-0 run.

$47.1 million sixth man Russell Westbrook was a big part of both collapses, thanks to sloppy turnovers, fouls and takes.

When asked point-blank about Westbrook's failings while striving to close out both the first and second halves of the game, Ham offered up a relatively even-handed answer:

"Well, I thought there were some unfortunate plays that he would normally make," Ham offered, diplomatically. "But if I had to do it all over again, I would put him in the same situations. I thought he was huge for us tonight. Provided a huge boost at the three-point line. Overall, with his point total. And there were times he pushed the pace. There were times he really put pressure on the paint. Found some guys for easy looks. But it's tough. I've got certain things that stick out in my mind, but without going over the film I can't really get into detail. But I will say this, again, if I had to do it all over again, he'd be in the game, for sure -- and in those situations."

Though Westbrook has performed better since Ham moved him to a bench role for L.A., he is still not without flaw, and those issues were in full effect Friday -- to his team's detriment.