Without LeBron James, nor Luka Doncic, happy father of a second child, the day after their narrow victory in Toronto, the Lakers did not weigh heavily against the Celtics. For their annual visit to their historic enemies, JJ Redick’s players lost by 21 points after being up to 29 points behind in the first half. But the coach restrains the reaction of pride after the break.
“We’re one of the best teams in the league on mid-range shots in the paint, out of the circle, and we shot 5 of 13 in that zone. They knocked us out from 3-point range in the first half. We outscored them by one over the last three quarters, but unfortunately basketball doesn’t work like that and we ended up losing by 21 points.” he explains. “I thought our response was good. We had a lot of moments where we could have cracked, and we didn’t. That’s a credit to our guys.”
In passing, Redick defends his game plan, which was to give freedom to Jaylen Brown and Jordan Walsh wide. Every evening, you have to make strong choices, and he takes them on.
“Jaylen Brown shoots a low percentage — around 30% — on 3-pointers off the dribble, and he hits three in a row in the third quarter. Jordan Walsh, we were ready to do with his 3-pointers, you have to give up something, and he makes four…” he notes. “We contested three of those shots. So you have to be willing to live with certain choices, and they made us pay for it. You can talk about the game plan all you want, but you have to know what you’re willing to accept. We’ve done that many times, and tonight it backfired on us.”
