The Los Angeles Lakers have struggled to make an impact from the free throw line in the game’s final seconds. With an average of 72.4% from the charity stripe during the 2024–25 NBA season, the Lakers rank 26th in the league in the fourth quarter. In contrast, Los Angeles has a perfect shooting percentage in overtime and leads the league in free throw shooting.
Despite this, the team hasn’t performed well from the free-throw line in late-game situations. This led Lakers head coach JJ Redick to quip about cheering for the team during that specific period of the game.
“I told Rob, if we need help with our late-game free throws,” Redick said. “we can always put in the 9th [highest free throw percentage shooter] of all time.”
“I told Rob [Pelinka], if we ever need help with our late-game free throws, we can always put in the 9th [highest free throw percentage shooter] of all time.”
JJ Redick thinks he can help the Lakers late-game free throw shooting woes 😅
(via @jovanbuha) pic.twitter.com/U9wrEEuk0S
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) December 19, 2024
The Lakers head coach had a reputation as one of the league’s most dependable shooters while he was a player. He made 89.2% of his shots from the free-throw line and was a consistent 41.5% shooter from beyond the arc.
His efficiency from the charity stripe got him in the top 10 list of all-time free throw shooters. Other players on the list are Stephen Curry (No. 1), Steve Nash (No. 2) and Ray Allen (No. 8).
Los Angeles Lakers head coach said the team should ‘trust the process’ when it comes to making their offense work
There have been a few problems for the Los Angeles Lakers this season and one of them is how they execute their offense. According to Redick, the Lakers should “trust the process” when executing their offense. His comments about the team’s offense came following their 97-87 loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday.
“I think you have to trust the process of running good offense and getting good looks and trust that those shots will, in the aggregate, go in more,” Redick said.
The team had a subpar performance shooting the basketball, only making 38.4% of their shots from the field as a group. Their efficiency from beyond the arc wasn’t impressive, either. The Lakers shot a poor 28.6% from the 3-point area. Following the game, All-Star big man Anthony Davis spoke about their shooting performance.
“We can’t control makes or misses,” Anthony Davis said postgame. “We just have to continue to create those looks. We continue to create those looks then eventually those shots have to fall, especially if guys continue to put in the work and shoot the ball with confidence.”
JJ Redick thinks the Lakers need to trust the process offensively https://t.co/DiLZN6mYFH
— Silver Screen and Roll (@LakersSBN) December 19, 2024
The team bounced back and had a 116-110 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday.
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Reign also writes NBA and WNBA news updates on Sportskeeda. He started as a feature writer for AirAlamo, an NBA website that covers the San Antonio Spurs. Some of his work can also be seen with Valley of the Suns, a Phoenix Suns-centric website, where he served as a contributing writer.
