Darvin Ham commends Anthony Davis' grit following first win as LA Lakers head coach: "The way he fought through that... He said 'Hell no, I got you'"
Darvin Ham finally got his first victory as head coach of the LA Lakers. The first-time head coach promptly paid tribute to superstar player Anthony Davis for the pivotal role in the 121-110 win over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.
The reason Ham was so adulatory about Davis was because the eight-time All-Star continued playing despite injuring his back again.
Speaking to the media after the game, Ham said about Davis' play:
"Huge impact. The way he fought through that. He said 'Hell no, I got you.'"
Ham had some more high praise for his star forward when he said:
"I want him to be the AD we all know he can be. He showed it tonight. Tenaciousness on defense, timely shot making and determination."
Ham on AD gutting through his back soreness: "Huge impact. The way he fought through that ... he said 'Hell no, I got you'" (re: coming out).
"I want him to be the AD we all know he can be. He showed it tonight. Tenaciousness on defense, timely shot making, (determination)."
The win against the Nuggets came in front of the Lakers fans at the Crypto.com Arena. The Lakers faithful loudly cheered for their team at the end, appreciating the fact that the franchise finally earned their first win of the season.
Speaking of the fans' enthusiasm, Ham continued:
"Our fans were awesome tonight. I really wanted to give them something to be loud and proud about. Hopefully we can string a few of these together and just keep growing and learning."
Darvin Ham on excitement of getting his first victory, citing the environment:
"Our fans were awesome tonight ... I really wanted to give them something to be loud and proud about. Hopefully we can string a few of these together and just keep growing and learning."
Lakers players celebrated Ham's first victory as head coach by giving him a shower during their locker-room celebration.
Congrats to Darvin Ham on getting his first official win as an NBA head coach 👏
(via @94feetofgame/ IG)
#NBATwitter #LakeShow https://t.co/RFtzUru2Fm
"Tried to do whatever I could do to help the team get the win," says Anthony Davis about playing through back injury for the Lakers
Anthony Davis posted 23 points and 15 rebounds in the Lakers victory and finished with an overall plus-minus of +15. Despite reinjuring his back during the game, the former No. 1 pick was impressive on the night and managed to get his third double-double of the season.
When asked about how he was able to continue playing and how he plans to recover from the injury, Davis said:
"Keep doing what I'm doing. It was killing me tonight, but tried to do whatever I could do to help the team get the win. So, if that means going fight through it, we going to fight through it.
"I got two days between games to try to get it right for New Orleans on Wednesday, I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that we get this done."
Another possible source for Davis' motivation could have been the fact that the Lakers were the only winless team in the NBA before this game.
AD continued:
"We needed this win for our team, our spirits, our fans, our organization. This is a team that just beat us. To come out and show what we are capable of, this has got to be the start of a run for us.
"It felt good to get that monkey off our back and get a win in the win column and try to get this thing going."
"We needed this [win] for our team, our spirits, our fans, our organization." - @AntDavis23 (23 points, 15 rebounds) speaks with @LakersReporter about #Lakers getting their first 'W' and dealing with his back injury. https://t.co/kgw13EkANO