Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick has done a great job in leading his team to a 15-5 start this season. Despite LeBron James not playing most of the games, and minor injuries forcing nearly everyone on the roster to miss at least one game, the Lakers have played hard and looked like one of the better teams in the league.
But now, the Lakers are facing their toughest stretch of the season so far as they are set to embark on a three-game road trip which kicks off with a back-to-back against the Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics, followed by a matchup with the Philadelphia 76ers. And when they return home, they will host the San Antonio Spurs in the quarterfinals of the Emirates NBA Cup.
Redick understands that this is a huge challenge for this Lakers team, but he is prepared for it and will have his team ready for the task that lies ahead.
“The entire season is challenging but throughout the season,” Redick said. “There are stretches that are more challenging than others… In terms of an East Coast trip – I know there’s a couple of teams that have stuff like this in terms of the Eastern Conference going west and West going east – I’ve been part of the NBA 19 years. I don’t ever remember a California-based team going to the far east of the Eastern Conference for three games to play three and four nights. That’s an incredible challenge. And then we come back of course and got another challenge. It’s going to be a tough stretch and we’re going to have to manage a lot of different stuff coming up.”
One of those things they will have to manage is those injuries as Marcus Smart is dealing with a back issue while James continues to deal with a foot problem that has been bothering him for years now.
The Lakers have proven that they can win games regardless of who is on the court and as long as Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves continue to play at a high level they can beat anyone on any given night. But this coming week will test the Lakers like they haven’t been so far this year and Redick will have to make sure his team is up for the challenge.
Austin Reaves believes Lakers need to ‘flush’ loss to Suns
Unfortunately, the Lakers aren’t going into this road trip on a high note as they saw their seven-game win streak snapped with an awful loss to the Phoenix Suns. And Austin Reaves feels they just need to “flush” that loss and move on with some challenging matchups in front of them.
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