Even though the Los Angeles Lakers dropped their second straight preseason game, this time to the Phoenix Suns, there was plenty to be excited about. LeBron James and Anthony Davis made their preseason debuts under new coach JJ Redick for the first time and things looked extremely promising.
LeBron led the Lakers with 19 points, five rebounds, four assists and two blocks while Davis had 17 points, eight rebounds and three assists. The Lakers led by 12 at the half with both stars sitting out the second half and even though the reserves weren’t quite able to hold on to the lead, Redick was very happy with how the Lakers played overall.
“I was really happy, just happy overall with how we played tonight,” Redick said after the game. “I thought the first half, our screening was really good. Sharing the basketball was really good. We got it to our best players in good spots for them. So I was happy with how we executed.
“[The Suns] have a lot of good players and even when we had our bench unit in and they had their bench unit in, they really spread you out. A lot of movement side to side and I thought overall our activity level defensively was good. The only thing that is concerning and we’ll watch it and we’ll clean it up, but the turnovers have been a problem. I think we had eight in the fourth, so we got to clean that up.”
The Lakers had 17 turnovers against the Suns after committing 20 in the preseason opener against the Minnesota Timberwolves so that is undoubtedly an area that needs to be improved. But once again the player and ball movement on offense and the activity on defense was extremely promising and is something to build on.
Redick was also happy with the Lakers’ shot selection on the night, noting how well they set screens and were able to get to the rim, even though he still would like to see a few more 3-pointers from his team.
“Screening was something that I really emphasized and I thought in the first half, we did a good job screening,” Redick added. “That allowed us to get some layups, it allowed us to get some 3s, it allowed us to get some overreactions to the basketball. To be clear, I’m OK with paint 2s in any facet. I don’t think you want to live on a diet of 10-15 foot floaters a game, particularly if you don’t have Jalen Brunson on your team. If you look at it, for us and our group to take 40 3s in a game, that’s promising. We can get it up to 50, hopefully. But 40 was good.”
The next step for the Lakers will be making a higher percentage of those 3-pointers as they made just 11 of those 40 attempts and are shooting just 29.2% from deep so far this preseason. But the foundation is being set and the early returns for these Lakers with LeBron and Davis on the court under Redick are worth getting excited about.
JJ Redick explains why he revealed Lakers starting lineup
The second preseason game was the first time the Lakers’ starting lineup shared the court under JJ Redick and it went very well as the group worked together well as they did most of last year. Some questioned why Redick chose to reveal the lineup well before the regular season, but the Lakers coach didn’t understand why it was a big deal.
“Why not? I guess. Chris Finch is gonna get my starting lineup before the game. He’ll have a general idea, we’re gonna play them in the preseason. Like, I don’t care. We’re gonna have the same lineup in game 10 if we’re healthy, same lineup in game 20. I mentioned the other day envisioning a nine-man rotation in the regular season.
“I hope you guys know this, I’m open-minded on everything and that’s I think one of the greatest things I learned from all of the coaches that I played for that I really appreciated, Coach K. You always have to be adaptable as a player, as a coach. So that’s what we’re gonna go with. I don’t need to keep that a secret, it’s not a big deal.”
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