JJ Redick Discusses Lakers' Defensive Issues Vs. Spurs
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When the Los Angeles Lakers have been at their best, their defense has been on point. In their return to the court against the San Antonio Spurs, that defense greatly failed them in the second half and head coach JJ Redick had no answer.
The Lakers were outscored 37-13 in the fourth quarter of the contest, ultimately being blown out at home in their first game back after back-to-back postponements. As Redick pointed out, once the Spurs called a timeout late in the third quarter, the wheels just came off as the Lakers couldn’t hold on to the ball.
"Yeah, when they [San Antonio] called the timeout, we were up 10 and then tied going into the fourth,” Redick said after the game. “As you point to the 13 points in the fourth quarter, but you give up 73 points in the second half. We had nine turnovers in both halves. Frankly, we should have had 70 in the first half offensively. We just couldn’t keep the ball in front of us."
The Spurs called a timeout Max Christie hit a 3-pointer to put the Lakers up 10 with under four minutes remaining in the third. From that point on they outscored the Lakers 52-to-18 and Redick noted how the Spurs were able to keep Anthony Davis away from the rim defensively.
"So, with Wemby (Victor Wembanyama) being on the court, you have to kind of decide how you want to play a coverage and whether you want to red,” the Lakers coach added. “So, if he’s away from the basket and you’re in coverage, in theory, the five would be away from the rim. If you red and he rolls, the five is away from the rim. The point of attack was not good tonight. I’ll have to look at the film. I turned to Ty [Abbott], who had the scout today, and I just was like, 'Man, it feels like there's no one in the paint for us.' That's what I saw in real time, and I’ll have to look at the tape but just everything was at the rim with 66 points in the paint. It’s tough."
The Spurs had an answer for everything the Lakers tried and Davis dealing with foul trouble didn’t help either. Veteran Chris Paul orchestrated everything on the court and constantly hunted switches for the Spurs bigger wings on the Lakers’ smaller guards like Christie and Austin Reaves. Redick would even credit the Spurs coaching staff for their strategy and commitment to attacking the rim.
“There were a lot in the second half of middle drives, whether that was after a read or after a closeout,” Redick noted. “And there’s some teams that are OK with the ball going middle. We’re not a let-the-ball-go-in-the-middle team. And again, I didn’t feel like we really had a low-man presence. I think Mitch [Johnson] and his staff did a good job, based on the last game where we were reading, and they really tried to take advantage of that with pulling our low man. And we did pull in, Wemby we was in the paint, they just skipped the corner and we ended up giving up the three or wasn’t good with closeout speed."
Whether it was great Spurs strategies or disappointing efforts from the Lakers or a combination of both, the end result was one the Redick and the Lakers will want to move on from as they have now lost three consecutive games and are in dire need of something to turn things around.
JJ Redick, Lakers announce more wildfire relief efforts
The Lakers along with many other Southern California sports teams including the Clippers, Rams, Dodgers and many others announced a combined pledge donation of more than $8 million to assist local relief efforts. Additionally, Lakers coach JJ Redick has pledged his own independent donation to relief efforts as well.
"We are committed as ever to Los Angeles," Redick said in a statement. "We recognize it's not just our community that has been impacted by this. We're committed to helping people as much as we can and we're going to do that."
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