The Los Angeles Lakers find themselves facing elimination on Monday night as they host the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 4 of their second round playoff series. Despite playing well in stretches, the Lakers have simply been unable to hang with the Thunder and have dropped all three games by double digits.
To potentially be swept out of the playoffs in four consecutive blowouts is definitely not the way the Lakers want to go out this year, but head coach JJ Redick made it clear that regardless of what happens, his outlook on this season is unchanged. He feels the Lakers have gotten everything out of this group that was possible.
“I think, again, coaching is about two things: it’s about maximizing the group and then it’s do people enjoy coming to work, and when you set out on any season, that’s your goal,” Redick told reporters after practice on Sunday. “I don’t know about the second one because frankly, every guy is going to go through a little bit of adversity during the season whether it’s playing time or feeling like they’re not getting plays called, whatever it may be. I think that second question probably changes by the day.
“The first question, can you maximize the group? I think we’ve done that this year. I’m not saying that as a credit to the staff, it’s a credit to everybody in the building. And we’ve put ourselves in position in three of these games that we were in the mix in the second half and there’s a reason they’re the world champions. There’s a reason they’re the deepest team in basketball and that’s why they win. So I wish we weren’t in this hole. We’re going to try to be better and we’re gonna go try to win a game tomorrow and extend the series.”
The Lakers have dealt with a ton of injuries throughout this season that have limited the team’s ability to really build chemistry, especially between the team’s top three players in Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves and LeBron James. But despite that, the Lakers won 53 games and the Pacific Division title, and advanced out of the first round of the playoffs despite being without Doncic for the entire postseason.
Coming up short against the Thunder, who remain heavy favorites to repeat as champions, is nothing to be ashamed of and the Lakers have fought hard in every game, but have simply been outclassed. But that should not take away from the job that Redick, the players, the coaches and everyone in the building have done this year.
JJ Redick not giving up despite Lakers falling down 3-0 to Thunder
Regardless of the odds the Lakers are facing, Redick maintains belief in this team to be successful and he made it very clear that he is not giving up on this team despite the near impossible task facing them.
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