The Los Angeles Lakers had a great start. As cautious optimism about the Lakers’ trajectory began to rise, rookie head coach J.J. Redick won his first three games in charge, and LeBron James shared the court with his son Bronny on opening night.
Since then, Los Angeles has returned to reality, perhaps even with a crash. In Lakerland, consecutive defeats to the Phoenix Suns and LeBron’s hometown Cleveland Cavaliers have caused some introspection. Redick, the former broadcaster and podcaster, has responded harshly, threatening to argue with his former co-host LeBron.
J.J. Redick attacks the “mistakes” of the Lakers
Days after criticizing LeBron for being too passive, Redick spoke to the media following the Lakers’ 134-110 loss to the 5-0 Cavaliers, lamenting his team’s lack of focus and attention to detail. Redick said : “We made a lot of mistakes, simple stuff sometimes, low-man, rotations, not executing our switches early,”. “They did a lot of things to force us into those mistakes but when you play a good basketball team, you can’t make that many mistakes.”
“When you play a good basketball team, you can’t make that many mistakes.” JJ Redick on tonight’s loss. pic.twitter.com/NX3fc5Jp7o
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) October 31, 2024
The Lakers’ offensive performance has been trending toward “elite” through five games; because to Redick’s ideas plus the skill of James and Anthony Davis, LA currently has the eighth-best offensive rating in the NBA. But with a defensive rating of 117.1 points per 100 possessions, the Lakers are ranked 25th.
Even though Davis was playing MVP-caliber (30.6 points and 12.2 rebounds per game), Redick even let his star big man get away with it during a sequence that received a lot of backlash on social media.
