The Los Angeles Lakers picked up a second straight impressive victory on Saturday night, defeating the Golden State Warriors on the road. Anthony Davis, LeBron James and Austin Reaves all were excellent, but head coach JJ Redick also got strong performances from the team’s role players as well.
Dorian Finney-Smith, Dalton Knecht, Max Christie and Jarred Vanderbilt, who made his long-awaited season debut, all played their roles excellently and contributed exactly what the Lakers needed them to. The same was the case in the Lakers’ prior contest against the Boston Celtics and the result in both games were comfortable victories for Redick’s team.
Both Redick and LeBron James recently spoke about the Lakers having little margin for error with how this current roster is constructed. But following Saturday night’s win Redick clarified his comments and spoke about how the performance of the team’s role players can create that margin the team is looking for, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“I really believe this. What I was kind of getting at wasn’t our roster. What I was getting at was the nature of how we play. The nature of how we play through our best players and the nature of not having necessarily a Steph Curry on our roster that can literally generate 10-12 3s a game. I was getting at the math more than anything. What I would say is the last two games, our three best players have played really well and everyone else has starred in their roles. That’s what a great team is, is guys starring in their roles. So for Vando, him starring in his role. Gabe starring in his role. Max Christie starring in his role. Jaxson Hayes starring in his role, all those guys, Doe. That separates us a little bit. That creates a margin for us to become a great team.”
It is true that the Lakers don’t have that singular player like a Stephen Curry or Kevin Durant who can blow a game open and get nuclear hot from 3-point range. For as great as Anthony Davis and LeBron James are, that isn’t their game and thus the Lakers as a whole are more reliant on everyone playing their role at the highest level possible.
Redick has been able to get that out of his team in the last couple of games and the more they can do so, the more the Lakers will enjoy these types of victories as opposed to sweating out every last contest.
Anthony Davis admits to skepticism when Lakers hired JJ Redick as head coach
As everyone pointed out when the Lakers hired JJ Redick as their new head coach last offseason, he had no prior coaching experience. This of course led to many questioning whether he could handle the job and even superstar Anthony Davis was a bit skeptical.
The Lakers superstar admitted to being unsure when the hire was made as he didn’t know Redick too well. But as they had more conversations, Davis began to like what Redick was talking about and drawing up. And once training camp came and he was able to see everything Redick had planned in real-time, Davis was on board and the big man is now enjoying his best season in a Lakers uniform.
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