Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick had nothing to be proud of after seeing his team get run off the floor by the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night.
The Lakers lost to the Suns 132-108, though the final score still didn’t do their performance justice.
Los Angeles looked listless the entire night, failing to show any fight or competitive fire after they went down big in the first half.
Redick pointed out the Lakers’ inability to defend the paint is what got them into a large hole, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“They scored on the first 13 possessions of the second half… They had about a 140 offensive rating, they had about a 1.43 offensive rating when they touched the paint. So they touched the paint on every possession, we couldn’t keep them out of the paint.”
Redick also detailed how difficult it is for a team like the Lakers to consistently defend the point of attack given the skillsets of their players compared to other teams like the Suns:
“We certainly talk about containing the basketball at the point of attack with our pickup points and guarding your yard. Overall, the sort of execution, when your margin for error is not super high, you need to be very detailed to be able to execute it. And when we do it, we can string together some good defensive possessions. We didn’t do that at all tonight. We tried zone, they got a layup and an open 3, I don’t know why we were guarding Mark Williams at the 3-point line when they got the 3, didn’t get the ball ICE’d in pick-and-roll in the second possession, zone, they got middle, we went under, layup. So it’s like, you don’t do the things we’re trying to do to sort of protect and keep the ball on the side, you get exploited. I think we’ve had some things where we did things well, but I think the theme with our team, again, is these young teams that move, we just can’t move. It’s like we’re stuck in mud… At that point, you’re out of options.”
As far as playing hard goes, Redick believes it comes down to the players making conscious decisions over and over again:
“We practice this stuff enough, we review film on this stuff enough. To me, it comes down to just making the choice. It’s making the choice. There’s shortcuts you can take, or you can do the hard thing and you can make the second effort, or you can’t. You can sprint back, or you can’t. It’s just a choice. There’s a million choices in a game and you’re very likely not gonna make every choice correctly. But can you make the vast majority of them correctly? That gives you a chance to win.”
While Redick said it’s not concerning to see his team struggle to make the right choice, he did note that being comfortable won’t win them games:
“It’s not concerning, again, that’s why I said it’s the hard choice. It’s not the easy choice. It’s human nature. We all do it. We do it on a daily basis. We make easy choices because it’s comfortable. Comfortable doesn’t win.”
At this point, Redick sounds like he’s already sent his message and it’s up to the players to decide whether or not it’s worth buying into. They’ll need to or else they could continue to struggle against better competition.
JJ Redick challenged Luka Doncic and LeBron James
Redick understands the Lakers will go as far as Luka Doncic and LeBron James can take them. While Doncic and James have been lights out offensively, Redick recently challenged them to give more defensively.
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