LOS ANGELES — The chant began in the final minutes of another lost season, the blame thundering down from furious Laker fans in four sharp syllables.

"Fi-re Dar-vin … Fi-re Dar-vin … Fi-re Dar-vin."

The Lakers are on the precipice of a second consecutive playoff disaster, and it's becoming clear who could take the fall.

In the wake of Thursday's 112-105 loss to the splendidly coached Denver Nuggets at Crypto.com Arena, the smoking wreckage has seemingly trapped one man.

Darvin Ham, just one season after being the toast of the town, is in danger of being toast.

His team failed to make the right adjustments and folded in the third quarter again Thursday as they lost to Denver for an unreal 11th consecutive time overall and a third time in three games in this first-round playoff duel.

No NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series, so the Lakers are essentially done.

No Lakers coach has ever come back from publicly questioning players, publicly angry fans and a publicly embarrassing postseason, so Ham is also at risk of being done.

It seems hastily silly to fire a coach who led the Lakers to the Western Conference finals in his only other season here. But this is how the Buss ownership group has recently operated, showing great devotion to superstars while having little patience with head coaches.

Just look at the latest casualty list, which includes one coach who won an NBA title and another who deftly facilitated the final seasons of Kobe Bryant.

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