The Los Angeles Lakers desperately needed a win on Sunday evening against the Portland Trail Blazers. Head coach JJ Redick was left reeling for answers after a nine-game stretch in which L.A. lost seven games and nearly looked as though they had quit on the whole season.
But they showed some fight at the tail-end of the losing stretch against the Atlanta Hawks, and were consistent in their comfortable victory over Portland. The Lakers didn’t even have LeBron James in the lineup, but they were able to have guys like Rui Hachimura and D’Angelo Russell step up and make his absence less noticeable.
Much of that started on the offensive end, where the Lakers are looking more efficient after two straight games of under 95 points. Redick broke down the team’s stabilized offense and how they were able to get to that place.
“Yeah, there’s a few things there [with] just halfcourt shot creation and having another ballhandler out there,” Redick said. “We really wanted to play in the middle of the floor tonight. They have some young guys that really try to pressure you, and [we] really didn’t feel like playing on the side was good.
“[We] didn’t feel like playing in the post really was good either because they flood with that low guy and they’re disruptive. [Toumani] Camara is like Dyson Daniels or some of these other guys that we’ve played recently that just kind of get you out of your flow offensively if you are stagnant. So, we wanted to just play in the middle of the floor.
“I thought Rui [Hachimura] in that second quarter was great. D’Lo (D’Angelo Russell) just having a big-time game. AD (Anthony Davis) was fantastic. Then defensively for us, I thought a number of guys played really well, Gabe Vincent, Max Christie and Cam [Reddish], it was an overall really good game for our group.”
Getting the flow of the offense restored without LeBron in the lineup is an impressive feat. And Redick also spoke about how the Lakers are going to handle mixing players missing games with their offensive success this season.
“Yeah, I think you have to adapt throughout the season with what works for the group and what works for different players,” Redick said.
“I will say night-to-night, LeBron [James] and AD (Anthony Davis) are going to have the ball and the offense is going to run through them. How we do that has been different at different times throughout the year. The other guys are really good offensive players and really talented, and there’s nights where it’s their nights and there’s nights where it’s not.
“So, some of it is feel, but again you have to be open to mixing different things in. You know, it’s funny because when LeBron was scratched, I went into my office and put seven ATO’s (after timeouts) together that obviously didn’t involve him. One of which was for Rui [Hachimura], [and] I don’t know if we’ve called an ATO for him since the preseason, and we executed it. He scored. We ended up running that nine or ten times and I think they stopped it once. So, just that flexibility I think is important.”
The Lakers definitely have an offense-first identity, and that had started to slip over the last week. Getting that back, even against an opponent like the Trail Blazers, is an important first step towards getting the team as a whole back on track.
JJ Redick believes four days off will benefit LeBron James
With LeBron James turning 40 years old at the end of December, JJ Redick has to find a balance between relying on James to bail out the Lakers and finding him enough rest to ensure he gets to the end of the regular season and potentially the playoffs in one piece. With that in mind, it was no surprise that Los Angeles ruled out James for their home matchup against the hapless Trail Blazers with foot soreness.
Because the Lakers were eliminated from the NBA Emirates Cup’s knockout stage, they’ll have additional days off throughout the week that Redick believes will be good for James, who can use the time to get right physically.
“Yeah, I mean, you don’t want him out of the lineup, that’s for sure,” Redick said. “But it is an opportunity to get four days rest before we practice again. So it could be really good for him.”
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