After key players were in and out of the lineup all preseason, JJ Redick used the final exhibition game on Friday night against the Sacramento Kings as a dress rehearsal for the Los Angeles Lakers ahead of Opening Night on Tuesday.
That meant playing starters and regular rotation players for almost the entire game, including Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and others.
Unfortunately, the result was another loss as the Lakers fell to the Kings 117-116 and will end their preseason with a 1-5 record.
The Lakers were ahead for most of the night though and Redick assessed both the positives and negatives of the team’s final preseason tuneup.
“The biggest thing from tonight was just our passing,” Redick said. “Twenty-eight assists, 10 turnovers, nine dead-ball turnovers, one shot clock violation. The reality is we should’ve had about 35 assists. We gotta figure out our lobs and then we had a couple of Harlem Globetrotter plays when the simple play was right there. But we had multiple possessions where everybody touched it, we created multiple advantages and got good shots, some of which we didn’t make. But I just liked our offensive flow and execution for most of the game.
“Not a great defensive start but there were some good things in the second and third quarters. I challenged guys to be into the basketball more, we were just so far off the body every time we got an ice or weak call. They were better in the second half. Not perfect, but better. I think just overall, good to have like a Marcus Smart game. Did some really good things, that’s a positive sign for us going into the regular season. Our starting five was all in the plus in plus-minus and three of them in double figures. So I liked overall that group together. Again, another game where I think we took a step in the right direction.”
The Lakers will be without superstar LeBron James to begin the season, but all of their other key players looked healthy and ready to go on Friday night.
L.A. will have two practices before Opening Night to clean some more stuff up, but Redick and the coaching staff have done what they can this preseason with the cards they were dealt and now it’s just about going out and executing.
JJ Redick explains Lakers’ starting lineup decision
With LeBron James out, JJ Redick chose to include Gabe Vincent in the starting lineup to begin the season and explained why.
“I don’t know anything about who I’m going to be starting the rest of the season because, again, there’s injuries and there’s things that happen throughout a year,” Redick said. “I have a pretty good idea who’s going to start Game 1. After that, I don’t know. But I do think in that lineup there’s lot of shooting around Luka and DA, and Gabe is another ball handler, another tough defender. I think he fits in well, but you have to take a look at every matchup we play against and have to make a decision there.”
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