The Los Angeles Lakers dropped their fifth game in their last seven contests as they were blown out by the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night in the second of a back-to-back. JJ Redick’s team put forth their worst offensive performance of the season, totaling a season-low 80 points while shooting 40.5% from the field and 19.4% from 3-point range.
The Lakers scored 20 or fewer points in three of four quarters while also committing 20 turnovers which led to 26 Timberwolves points on the other end.
When asked what was missing for the Lakers on the offensive end, Redick had a simple answer, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Just overall more body and ball movement.”
Redick would continue on, pointing to recent games in which the Lakers showed they can be successful offensively against good teams recently, but simply haven’t been able to do so consistently:
“I have not seen us playing the way we played earlier in the year. I’ve got to spend all day tomorrow with my staff trying to figure out how do we get back to that. It’s funny because the first half of Phoenix we did it, first half of Denver we did it, against Orlando seven games ago against one of the best defenses in the league we had a 120 offensive rating. It’s there.”
The Lakers certainly have the tools when everything is clicking. Anthony Davis has been outstanding on numerous fronts for most of this season, LeBron James is still excellent more often than not and Austin Reaves provides a little bit of everything while Dalton Knecht is the sharpshooter this team needs.
But it has been a rough stretch and even Redick had to admit that the team’s recent second half performance against the Denver Nuggets that he referred to as an aberration is looking more like more than a one-off:
“The second half of the Denver game. I said that was an aberration, I said it to the group, I said it to you guys. It’s looking more and more like it’s not an aberration.”
Coming into Monday, the Lakers were averaging 114 points per game, but have only reached that number once in the past six games. This team has shown themselves to be capable of big offensive nights, but the consistency is nonexistent and Redick and the coaching staff must figure out how to get the Lakers back on track.
Lakers’ LeBron James adjusting to lower usage role in JJ Redick’s offense
With Austin Reaves out the last couple of games, LeBron James has found himself back on the ball more as the primary creator for the Lakers which is far more normal to him.
The Lakers star admitted it has been an adjustment playing more off-ball in JJ Redick’s offense, but made it clear that this is the way they want to play this season and it will take some time to get used to.
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