While JJ Redick was proud of what the Los Angeles Lakers accomplished in the first round against the Houston Rockets, he also knows their toughest challenge is ahead as they get set to take on the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Thunder beat the Lakers in all four regular-season meetings as Redick’s team struggled to take care of the ball. And the head coach knows that will be the key to this series as well.
“Taking care of the ball,” Redick said when asked about the most important thing for the Lakers against the Thunder. “I mean, the reality of their defense is that whatever moments we felt Houston pressuring, like the maximum amount of pressure they put on us, that’s OKC’s baseline. That’s their floor.
“You’re talking about a team that is top five in every category that’s disruptive based. Steals, blocks, turnovers forced, all that stuff. And they don’t foul. They somehow do all of that without fouling, which is one of the most remarkable things, I think, in NBA history.”
Against the Rockets, the biggest key for Redick was defensive rebounding, so they put a lot of attention on that in their practices leading up to the series. While they don’t have as much time on the practice court before the second round, Redick is making sure to emphasize the need to limit turnovers in their drills.
“I think today was building towards what tomorrow is gonna look like and building towards Game 1. You don’t obviously have as much time as you do for your first-round opponent. But we have to have some built-in pressure releases, yeah,” Redick said.
With Luka Doncic still out, the Lakers have become even more turnover-prone, making it a tall task to hold onto the ball against the Thunder and their ball pressure.
LeBron James, Austin Reaves, Marcus Smart and Luke Kennard will be the ones handling the ball a majority of the time, and they will need to stay locked in and limit the silly mistakes if the Lakers want to have a chance in this series.
JJ Redick shares high praise for Thunder
Ahead of their second-round matchup, Redick shared high praise for the Thunder and what they’ve been able to do the last couple of seasons.
“We saw a stat in our morning meeting this morning of teams that have had back-to-back, or even more than that 10 or more better net ratings in consecutive seasons. You’re talking about the 95-96 Bulls, the 96-97 Bulls and then the 15-17 Warriors,” Redick said.
“You’re literally talking about two of the greatest teams of all-time. I said to a bunch of people yesterday off-site that were talking about this series to me I said, ‘The Thunder is one of the greatest teams ever in NBA history.’ That’s just the reality. They are. They’re that good. I think our guys recognize that and respect that and we know what kind of task we have in front of us.”
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