Third quarters have been a struggle for the Los Angeles Lakers in recent years and that was again the case to start this season.
After getting outscored in the third quarter in all six of their preseason games, the Lakers gave up a 19-4 run to the Golden State Warriors to begin the second half in their season opener, effectively putting the game out of reach.
Lakers head coach JJ Redick acknowledged the team’s third quarter struggles after that loss and called on his team to switch up their routines.
That’s what they did in their second game against the Minnesota Timberwolves as players came out of the locker room early to get extra shots up. That worked as the Lakers outscored the Timberwolves 40-31 in the third frame, including an 8-5 to begin it that forced Minnesota to call a quick timeout.
After the Lakers’ win, which was greatly buoyed by that third quarter, Redick celebrated the team’s improvement and discussed what they did differently.
“There were no basketball adjustments. It was a halftime routine adjustment, that’s all,” Redick said. “They called the first time out, I think, for the first time in Lakers history. The other team called the first time out in the third quarter. We had a nice alright with the group, yeah, we did it! Maybe that’s the blueprint, just the coaches changing the routine a little bit.”
Lakers guard Austin Reaves also revealed what Redick’s message to the team was at halftime.
“Basically, don’t have a shitty third quarter,” Reaves said. “He came in here and we had a couple slides on of what we did well and didn’t do well, talked for a second and he was like ‘Go get ready.’ It’s been our Achilles heel for the last couple of years and we gotta find a way to not let that happen and tonight was much better.”
It was only one game, but the Lakers coming out in the second half like they did against the Timberwolves would go a long way in this team being successful.
Luka Doncic makes history in Lakers’ first two games
Luka Doncic entered the record books in the Lakers’ first two games as he became the first player in franchise history and just the fourth in NBA history to score at least 40 in each. He joined Anthony Davis, Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain as the only players to do so and Doncic’s 92 total points are the third-most ever through two games to begin a season.
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