Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick is piloting a red-hot team through a brutal upcoming stretch, during which they will be without LeBron James due to a groin issue. Monday night in Brooklyn was labeled by some as a “trap game” before the Lakers faced a taxing 6 games in 8 days beginning on Thursday against the Milwaukee Bucks. After a sloppy loss to the Nets, Redick did not hold back, lambasting his players for lack of willingness to do the difficult things needed to win in the NBA.
The Los Angeles Lakers Limped Into a Road Matchup With Brooklyn
JJ Redick has done a great job in his debut campaign as the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. He has embraced the pressure that the job brings and stabilized a Lakers franchise that has had some big ups and downs in the LeBron James era. However, Redick is now entering a difficult stretch and will be without James, who is sidelined with a groin injury.
After a hard-fought game against the Boston Celtics in TD Garden, where the Lakers lost 111-101, James went down with the injury. It was soon announced that the King would miss 10-14 days.
The Lakers made the short trip from Boston to Brooklyn to battle another eastern conference foe on the road. The Nets were on a 7-game losing streak entering Monday night. The Lakers had some problems of their own health-wise, and in addition to James, were missing two other starters, namely Jaxson Hayes and Dorian-Finney Smith.
After a strong first quarter, the Lakers slowed to a sluggish grind and were outscored by 15 in the following three periods. The Nets secured a narrow victory to break their losing streak. Lakers superstar Luka Dončić had a lot more on his plate without his co-star, and although he had a 22-12-12 triple-double, he was just 8-26 shooting and had 5 turnovers.
With three key players absent from the rotation, the Lakers bench was outscored 48-26. Jordan Goodwin had some strong moments en route to 17 points, but the Lakers still were not themselves. They were outrebounded, had more than double the number of turnovers as the opponent, and allowed the 25th best three-point shooting team to rain in 18 triples.
JJ Redick Rips Players for Poor Effort During Loss to Brooklyn Nets
Redick was visibly upset during the postgame press conference. He called out the team for being unable to do the little things needed to win a road game in the NBA.
“I think there was an overall mentality just to take shortcuts tonight. We just wanted to take shortcuts… we ball-watched all night… You wanna be a good team, you wanna win in the NBA, you gotta do the hard stuff.”
Redick elaborated on the Lakers lazy defense, which involved excessive risk-taking by gambling for steals, daring opponents who were making jumpers into taking long shots, and failure to box out after misses. The Nets recorded 16 offensive rebounds on the night.
Offensively, Redick felt that the team was not able to get into their offense due to lack of attention to detail. He mentioned how ball-screens were being set too high up the floor and other issues that made even simple passes hard for everyone.
Austin Reaves shouldered some of the blame for the loss, while Dončić also pointed to himself for the poor showing. The Lakers now enter a tough stretch of three back-to-backs in a row, meaning the team will play a brutal 6 games in 8 days. Although many of them are back at home in LA, it will be a tough ask for this Lakers team to continue to win, particularly without LeBron James.
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