The Los Angeles Lakers picked up their second straight emphatic victory over a playoff team, running away from the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second half for a 120-106 victory. And just like their previous win, it was the defense again that carried the Lakers, anchored by center Deandre Ayton.
The Lakers big man finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds and, while he didn’t record a block, was a constant deterrent at the rim, altering a number of shots and making life difficult in the paint for the opposition. Ayton’s efforts did not go unnoticed as head coach JJ Redick praised him for what he called a fantastic performance.
“You can talk about schemes and rotation and low man, all that stuff, our guys have been a lot better just guarding the basketball,” Redick said after the win. “And certainly in certain schemes, empty corner ISOs, we’re in a directional [and] force a direction on a player. But I think just containing the basketball was really good. And when we were in rotation, we did a really good job. I thought, our attention to detail on the [Julius] Randle and [Anthony] Edwards coverage was really good.
“DA (Deandre Ayton) was fantastic tonight on that end. And then the first half, we really couldn’t make a shot. He was really the only one scoring efficiently for us. It felt, the first four or five possessions, we don’t touch the paint but we’re getting good looks. It felt like as the half wore on, we were playing pretty good offense. We come back here, we have a 128 expected offensive rating. I told the guys at halftime to just keep trusting in what we’re doing. We ended up with a 153 offensive rating in the second half. So that end was really good. But really it was, our defensive game plan was fantastic. They executed it. Randle takes 11 shots, 14 points, Edwards goes 2-for-15. Certainly, I think he missed a couple of those threes that he can make. But I thought the majority of his threes were tough contested threes.”
Ayton has had his ups and downs this season, and definitely stirred up a bit of controversy with his comments a week ago. But Redick believes that having a performance like this against one of the best teams in the West will go a long way towards building his confidence and trust within the Lakers.
“It’s great for his teammates to see him have a really good performance on both ends of the floor,” Redick added. “Bigger for DA to have a game like that against a really good team, one of the best teams in basketball. He’s won us and helped to win us a ton of games this year. During this stretch there’s been some up and downs. But he was great tonight, it’s good for his confidence.
“I think the trust side of it, it’s easy to. As a coach, sometimes you’re so focused. You know the word trust, you think of defense and you think, if you do your job, you gotta trust there’s a low man. If the big’s up to touch, you gotta trust there’s a low man. If you’re supposed to be in a flood, you gotta trust that there’s a low. There’s trust there but the other side of trust is making the right play. I think now, coming off some games in January and some games in February where I don’t think the trust was there on the offensive side as high as it should be, we’ve consistently been improving on that. It’s getting to a good place.”
Coming into the season, it was believed that Ayton would be a true X factor for the success of the Lakers and that has been the case. If he can continue to perform at this level consistently, especially on defense, the ceiling of this team rises immensely.
JJ Redick breaks down Lakers’ success without LeBron James
Even more impressive for the Lakers’ recent level of play is that they have done so without LeBron James, who has missed the last three games due to injury. And head coach JJ Redick discussed why the Lakers have been able to play so well without the superstar in the lineup.
If you love our reporting, choose LakersNation.com as a preferred source on Google.
