Lakers' Darvin Ham Calls Out Cam Reddish, Vanderbilt: Can't 'Be Confused' with Ball

The Los Angeles Lakers have rolled with a starting lineup of LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Cam Reddish, Jarred Vanderbilt and Taurean Prince over the past two games, but that grouping particularly struggled on Christmas Day against the Boston Celtics in a 126-115 loss.

Per Jovan Buha of The Athletic, Lakers head coach Darvin Ham was asked if a "Reddish-Vanderbilt wing pairing is viable together," and he provided this response.

"I just think not allowing it to stagnate us. If they're trying to play off, Cam's got to step up shooting with confidence or eat up that space on the drive. Collapse the defense once he touches the paint and try to find open man. Same thing for Vando. The ball hits him, you just can't hold it and be confused. You just gotta move on to the next thing, whether it's a pitch ahead and hit to its teammates, (dribble handoff), or shot goes off, go hunt down off an offensive rebound, get us some extra possessions."

Buha provided the stats on the starting lineup, and they aren't pretty, although the rebounding has been top-notch.

Ultimately, the Lakers are in a rut and need to either figure things out with the latest version of the starting lineup and rotation or shake it up yet again.

The Lakers were in great shape on Dec. 9 after winning the first-ever In-Season Tournament, sporting a 14-9 record after an 11-4 stretch. Since then, it's been all downhill for the Lakers, who are just 2-6 since. Their last five losses have been by an average of 10.6 points per game.

As for Reddish and Vanderbilt, that duo has actually been a positive when paired together on the court, sporting a 1.6 net rating, per NBA.com. However, as Buha noted, outside shooting is an issue with those two paired together. Vanderbilt makes his living inside the three-point arc, while Reddish is a 30.1 percent career three-point shooter.

Ultimately, this season is just 31 games old, so the 16-15 Lakers have time to figure things out. For now, they'll look to avoid falling to .500 when they visit the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday.