The Los Angeles Lakers kicked off their first road trip of the season in a rematch against the Phoenix Suns. This time it was the opposite of the first meeting as the Lakers started strong but were unable to keep that lead, ultimately falling short 109-105 to give head coach JJ Redick his first career loss as a head coach.
There were certainly some positives as Anthony Davis continued his strong start to the season and the Lakers as a whole played with great effort and intensity throughout the night.
And Redick felt the same, putting this loss on himself and moves he made or failed to make, as opposed to the players themselves, via Spectrum SportsNet:
“We said we want to be a process team. I liked our process tonight. I liked the way we started the game. We talked about getting off to a great start, how they played on us Friday in L.A. and we did that. I liked our level of competition and compete on the defensive end. They put you in a lot of tough spots and they have elite individual shot-makers. I’ll have to go watch it but I felt like in some ways, we lost to Kevin Durant and Devin Booker’s ability to make tough 2s. I thought our execution down the stretch was phenomenal. If there’s one thing to nitpick, it’s probably me. I probably should have gone to the Fire a possession or two earlier against KD. But I liked that group that we had out there defensively. I trust those guys. Then the other thing I would say is we should never have a 14-point quarter. That’s on me as well. Part of that is me. I got to make sure we’re running good offense. I felt like it was a little random, got stalled out. We talked about it at halftime, for us to be a high level offense, we got to move bodies and move the ball. They got to screen and they just kind of took us out of what we were doing initially and we were great in the second half. We executed great in that second half. It was just that second quarter really hurt us.”
The Lakers were outscored 25-14 in that second quarter, which came after a not so great end to the first in which their 18-point lead was cut in half. Even still, the Lakers went back and forth with the Suns throughout the second half and had a chance to tie it late, but Phoenix chose to foul LeBron James while up three points with just 6.1 seconds left.
LeBron would make the first before intentionally missing the second, but the Lakers were unable to grab the rebound and a pair of Bradley Beal free throws cemented the final score. Afterwards, Redick confirmed that the intentional miss was planned and the rest of the team knew what was coming:
“We communicated that, yeah. Everybody that was on the floor knew what was happening and it was an insane miss, to be honest with you. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen an intentional miss that hit the bottom of the rim and then went straight down. Look, we had no timeouts. It was the choice that we made. I think it was the right choice and I’d make it again with that amount of time. They fouled up three, so even if we fouled earlier on that play, they got great free throw shooters and they’re gonna foul us again. So we had to get that possession for us to have a chance to tie or win the game.”
Obviously the Lakers were not going to be perfect throughout the season, but the energy surrounding this team is different from a year ago even with a roster that is mostly the same. Redick has done some great things so far and him taking the blame and learning from these early mistakes will only make him an even better coach down the line.
JJ Redick would love for LeBron James to play all 82 games for Lakers this year
One thing that would help JJ Redick’s coaching record is having LeBron James healthy and on the court playing at a high level. In his 22nd NBA season, LeBron must be managed, but the Lakers superstar made it clear that he wants to play in every game as long as he’s healthy and Redick is perfectly fine with that idea.
“I didn’t see the quote,” Redick said recently. “I just think most players go into a season, most players, not every player, obviously every player is different and their medical history is different and all of that stuff, but most players go into a season wanting to play 82 games. So if that’s what he wants to do, great. Love it. I would love to have him for 82. We’ll manage the minutes accordingly.”
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