Darvin Ham Rips Lakers for Loss to Nets amid Struggles: 'It's Over for the Excuses'

Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham had a simple message for his team after Friday's 130-112 loss to the Brooklyn Nets.

During his postgame press conference, Ham said "it's over for the excuses" and they have "got to play basketball."

The Lakers' defense struggled for the entire game, but it looked like the offense was going to carry them based on their first-half performance.

Anthony Davis, LeBron James and D'Angelo Russell all scored at least 16 points through the first two quarters. The team shot 53.1 percent from the field and had 20 assists to just four turnovers.

Things turned quickly in the second half, as the defense continued to play sluggish and the offense fell off a cliff. They scored 44 points in the third and fourth quarters combined. James had as many turnovers after the intermission as the entire team did in the first half.

Meanwhile, the Nets put up 68 points over the final 24 minutes. Cam Thomas, Spencer Dinwiddie, Nic Claxton and Mikal Bridges outscored the entire Lakers team in the second half (46-44).

Ham has been trying to find a starting combination that works all season. It looked like he found one that was good enough with James, Davis, Russell, Austin Reaves and Taurean Prince.

It's the Lakers' most common five-player lineup and has a plus-2.8 net rating. It's not great but is at least something positive they could try to build on.

But whenever it looks like the Lakers might be ready to turn a corner, they have a performance like what they turned in on Friday night and everything goes back to square one. They are back under .500 at 21-22, 10th in the Western Conference.

There will continue to be trade rumors swirling around Los Angeles until general manager Rob Pelinka makes a move or the deadline passes at 3 p.m. ET on Feb. 8, but Ham and the players currently on the roster need to figure things out now or it won't matter what might happen in two weeks.