The Los Angeles Lakers were served a dish of humble pie on Wednesday night as they were blown out by the defensive champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Lakers came into the night with an impressive 8-3 record despite numerous key players missing time, but they had no chance against the Thunder from the jump.
After the loss, head coach JJ Redick broke down what went wrong for the Lakers on both ends of the court, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“Sometimes when you’re not playing well offensively, it can affect what you’re trying to do defensively. There seemed to be more confusion I think on the court on the defensive end than I think we anticipated. So I gotta make sure that I’ve created enough clarity for these guys. SGA scored seven points on an empty wing iso, I think that’s our normal defense. It’s on the coverage board, we’re supposed to be in a flood and we didn’t get ti a flood. Coming out of a timeout, we were supposed to be in a zone. Three guys knew it. Again, if I gotta say it nine times then I’ll say it nine times. I’ll take some ownership on that. The offense, they force you at times to be a little disorganized because of how good Caruso and Wallace are individually. There’s nothing scheme-wise that we weren’t ready for. Just didn’t do a good job of execution on that end.”
The Lakers have now been blown out twice in the first three games of their five-game road trip. While there’s no reason to be overly concerned with their record still at 8-4, Redick knows they need to get some things fixed:
“I think you have to look big picture and then you have to look where your team is at right now. I don’t think it’s been a great road trip for us just in terms of how we played. The second half against Charlotte, I liked everything that I saw. But the Atlanta game and tonight I don’t think are reflective of who the group is going to be, but it clearly is who the group is right now and so we gotta course correct.”
Things don’t get easier for the Lakers as they finish their road trip with a back-to-back against the New Orleans Pelicans and Milwaukee Bucks. How they respond to the rough loss to the Thunder will be very telling, although they were able to get back on track after the Hawks loss which is a good sign.
Lakers forward Rui Hachimura focusing more on defense this season
The Lakers struggled defensively against the Thunder, but overall, Rui Hachimura recently discussed how much more focus he is putting on that end of the floor this season.
“I think being in the right position to start and communicating as a team defense. We have to communicate and we gotta be more vocal. That was the key, trying to be more focused this year and I think it’s working,” he said.
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