The Los Angeles Lakers dropped their preseason opener to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night, but there were still some positives to take away with the play of Max Christie being chief among them.
With LeBron James and Anthony Davis out, Christie got a chance to start and made the most of it, finishing with 11 points, seven rebounds, two assists, one steal and two blocks on 5-of-9 shooting in 34 minutes.
The Lakers re-signed Christie in the offseason and the expectation is for him to be a consistent member of the rotation this season. He got off to a good start on Friday and spoke on how much more comfortable he is feeling going into his third campaign.
“I’ve just been working a lot of the summer. Just as you get more experience in this, you feel a lot more comfortable and I feel like having two years in this now, I feel super comfortable just being out there and kind of navigating my own way, navigating trying to lead teammates,” Christie said.
“Tonight kind of was a good culmination of that. It was good to kind of see the first game of the season really kind of see things go my way. I thought I was pretty active on both sides of the ball, hit a 3 early. So I thought overall it was a good game for me and that’s good for my confidence going forward.”
New Lakers head coach JJ Redick seems to be putting a lot of faith in Christie from the jump despite him still being just 21 years of age, and he wants to reward his coach for that faith.
“I think we have a lot in common just in terms of how we approach the game,” Christie said of Redick. “I kind of wanted to use tonight as a way to, obviously it’s preseason and that’s what it’s for, kind of getting in the flow and setting my schedule for the regular season and that’s what I kind of did tonight. I was just super focused, treating it as if it was a normal game and it played out pretty well for me.”
Max Christie discusses development with Lakers
Even though he already got the new contract, this will be a big season for Max Christie in terms of showing his growth and ability to be a rotation player.
He is excited for the opportunity and reflected on how much he has developed since being drafted by the Lakers.
“I’ve always believed in myself and I always thought I was gonna be in this position,” the guard said. “I kind of thought about it before the game, kind of thinking about how this is my third time kind of going through my first preseason game and kind of thinking back to last year and the year before that. So it’s kind of cool for me to step back and see the growth that I’ve taken and kind of the uphill climb that I’ve been developing as a career so far. So I definitely believed in myself from the start and it’s cool to kind of see it come to fruition. I got to keep continuing that too.”
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