Darvin Ham won't admit he was wrong about the Lakers' best lineup

After having some struggles, the L.A. Lakers are riding a five-game winning streak with a new starting lineup of Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves, and D'Angelo Russell being a big reason why they have been able to do well. They haven't been healthy enough to start together the past three games but they've started 16 of the Lakers' last 22 games, going 11-5 in that stretch.

After the Lakers re-signed Reaves, Russell and Hachimura this offseason it was presumed this would be the core starting group this year. But they didn't get their first start together until Feb. 3.

Head coach Darvin Ham was asked if he wished he went to this group earlier in the season and, according to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, "There's [was] reason why things were the way they were"."

Ham continued on a long tangent about how the Lakers suffered a lot of injuries and spoke about the reports that he was just "throwing" stuff around the wall with a healthy roster. Ham has had a bad tendency to play Taurean Prince over Rui Hachimura. Additionally, Ham consistently played three-guard lineups with little success.

The Russell-Reaves-Hachimura-James-Davis lineup has outscored oppontents by an average of 5.3 points per 100 possessions. That same group with Prince in place of Hachimura has been outscored by 1.7 points per 100 possessions.

Last season, the Lakers had great success with this lineup in the playoffs and they outscored opponents by a whopping 47.5 points per 100 possessions. The franchise ran into a wall against the Nuggets but was able to get to the Western Conference Finals with this lineup and could have possibly gone all the way if Davis played better and Russell wasn't a big hole on the defensive end.

Will the Lakers use this starting lineup in the playoffs?

Despite Darvin Ham not wanting to use this lineup until recently, L.A.'s recent success with this lineup has virtually guaranteed that the franchise will use it in the Play-In Tournament at the very least. If the Lakers are able to keep their success, the team has a great chance at getting the eighth or ninth seed which will make it easier for them to make it out of the tournament.

If they are able to get to the playoffs, the Lakers could have a great shot to pull off an upset against the second or first seed since the franchise has two All-NBA veterans and a lineup combination that can work against any team. Oddly enough, the Lakers can be considered long-shot title contenders as the team has a winning combination and just needs their head coach to get out of the way.