The Los Angeles Lakers returned home and picked up a much-needed victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday night. And now thanks to the Emirates NBA Cup quarterfinals taking place, the Lakers will have four days off until they take the court again, which presents an interesting dilemma for head coach JJ Redick.
Redick recently spoke about the lack of practice time the Lakers have been afforded due to a schedule that has seen them play five of their last six games on the road, not to mention another five-game road trip earlier this season.
And while Redick understands that the Lakers need to have more practices together, the injuries up and down the roster has made him change course a bit and prioritize the team getting healthy and allowing for some rest and recovery.
“We haven’t had a ton of practice time, but the reality is that we are banged up,” Redick said after the win over the Blazers. “Even the guys that are playing every night are banged up. I would say tonight is the end of a very long two-week road trip. We’ve already had an 11-day road trip. Travel has been tough. Some of the back-to-backs and even just the other night in Atlanta and getting home at 3 a.m.
“So I would’ve liked to practice, but I think you do have to look at these opportunities, and they’re very rare, to give your guys two days off. Tuesday is not mandatory but will be sort of a recovery, get-what-you-need day for guys that need it. But heck, if somebody wants to go spend a couple nights in Santa Barbara and relax, that’s fine too.”
The current plan is for the Lakers to only have one official practice on Wednesday, although guys will still be in the gym to get treatment and stay in shape.
Austin Reaves has missed the Lakers’ last five games while LeBron James sat out against Portland with left foot soreness, his first missed game of the year. And as Redick noted, even someone like Anthony Davis who has been playing, has been dealing with plantar fascitis all year long as well, not to mention other players who are dealing with minor things that simply don’t make the injury report.
It’s a very delicate line to balance for the Lakers and getting this many days off is rare, but Redick ultimately feels it is more important to give his players a quick break. He also noted that the coaching staff has already been hard at work identifying some things that will help the team once they get back to practice.
“We’re a quarter of the way through the season and for the coaching staff, we’ve already started doing some internal auditing, some comparisons between the first 14 games really offensively, first 15 games, and what we’ve done the previous nine going into tonight,” Redick added. “Just try to figure out what works, what doesn’t. Some of the ‘Red’ stuff we need to audit and figure out what switching groups we want to have or what types of teams are hurting the ‘Reds’ versus what type of teams we’ve defended well enough with our switching groups versus other coverages and all that stuff. So it’s a good opportunity for everybody.”
How the Lakers come out on Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves will be worth watching. As long as they maintain that energy and fight they’ve shown the last couple games, along with better execution and cleaning up some of their issues, Redick will look good for the decision he made on how to utilize this week.
Lakers coach JJ Redick believes four days off could be good for LeBron James
While many Lakers stand to benefit from a couple of off days, many will obviously look at this being a good thing for LeBron James in his 22nd NBA season as well. And JJ Redick admitted that thanks to him sitting out against Portland, getting four days off before the Lakers practice could be good for the superstar.
“Yeah, I mean, you don’t want him out of the lineup, that’s for sure,” Redick said. “But it is an opportunity to get four days rest before we practice again. So it could be really good for him.”
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