Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick called the team’s poor third quarter against the Denver Nuggets an aberration, but it appears he may have been wrong.
Redick was forced to see the Lakers get trampled on in the third quarter against the Phoenix Suns again on Tuesday night, leading to a 127-100 blowout loss.
Afterwards, Redick credited his team for playing hard despite things spiraling out of control, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Really like how we played offensively in the first half,” Redick said. “Defensively, we were physical. Had a couple, I would call them gameplan mistakes. I thought we had a better first half than the score. Just kind of lost it offensively and we weren’t getting stops on top of that. You get down and there’s certainly can be some momentum and some energy but I thought our guys kept playing. I don’t know what we were, 7-for-26 in the second half from 3. I thought we got some good looks but sometimes the missed shots can sort of have an effect, especially when you’re not getting stops on the other end.
“Look, we may have to just look at some things defensively, particularly against really good offensive teams about what our overall sort of strategies are. They kind of got whatever they wanted. Their main players got to their spots and hit tough 2s, which they do. And they still took 42 3s… But our guys kept playing. Our guys kept playing, it was just a tough night.”
Offensively Los Angeles had its moments, but it was the defense that was absolutely terrible. Redick acknowledged some of the woes defensively are simply due to the personnel available:
“I would say, if you think about being disruptive, I think it starts there. Some of it is personnel-based, we don’t necessarily have a ton of guys that can go and pick up full court. But teams are trying to disrupt what we do, just like we’re trying to disrupt what other teams are doing. And whether that’s with screening action of DHOs, whatever it may be, we need to be better there. We need to be better executing gameplans, but look, sometimes against a team like this or a player like Jokic, you can gameplan all you want, but great players are gonna be great sometimes. Their three guys were great tonight and Jokic was great the other night.”
Los Angeles lacks speed and athleticism, especially at the guard spots so it’s easier for teams to get into the painted area and compromise the defense. Redick and his staff can plan all they want, but the reality is the roster is missing the pieces to make the system and schemes work.
JJ Redick insists Lakers weren’t haunted by ghosts of the past against Nuggets
The Lakers’ loss to the Nuggets followed the same script it’s been for years, though JJ Redick insisted that the team wasn’t being haunted by previous matchups.
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