JJ Redick Not Sure What Lakers Were Doing Defensively In Loss To Mavericks

Yesterday at 10:05 AM

Coming off a loss to the Houston Rockets, the Los Angeles Lakers followed it up with one of their worst defeats of the season when they lost to the Dallas Mavericks, 118-97.

The Mavericks were shorthanded as they were without Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, but that didn’t matter as the rest of the team torched the Lakers defense.

Los Angeles looked a step slow and were often out of rotation, allowing Dallas to bombard them from the perimeter.

After the loss, head coach JJ Redick lamented his team’s defensive performance, via Spectrum SportsNet:

“Obviously they killed us with any iso stuff. We talked this morning just about not giving up iso 3s. We gave two up in the first quarter and then tried to press up a little bit and sometimes we did a decent job of containing the basketball and they made some tough 2s. There was a bunch of times we didn’t contain the basketball well and our basic shell, day one, just wasn’t good. Low man wasn’t there. If he was there, weakside rotation wasn’t there. We just couldn’t get stops on that.

“I think there was two points in the game, we played fine in the first half, it was fine. We were up six with 2:59 to go and Klay comes out and hits three 3s and Dinwiddie gets a layup at the end and then they start the second half on a run. We cut it to five, and then they made four straight 3s. I’m not sure what our rotations were, I never saw us trying to execute what we were doing. I haven’t watched the film yet, just watching it live and talking to the assistants who did watch on film, we’re not sure what was going on with the shift positioning and rotations. Never seen it before."

Redick continued to lay into the Lakers defense, noting what they should’ve done on the floor:

“There’s two things that you can do. One is you stay with your own man. They were trying to lift AD and have him be the high guy and they would cut him out of there. So you can obviously stay with your own and then the next guy becomes the shift guy. Or you just zone up and you take covers. We did neither. Again, I’ve never seen that coverage before."

Lastly, Redick discussed what he saw from L.A. in terms of their energy and how it affected them on both ends of the floor:

“In terms of the energy, it felt like we played a little tired tonight. I don’t think it was a competitive level. I think it was more they were the tougher team and kind of dictated the game to us as opposed to vice verse. Sometimes the sort of lack of shotmaking can kind of affect you and your spirit. I think we were 8-for-16 at the rim in the first half and whatever we were from 3, 5-for-19, something bad. When you’re on the road and the other team is banging 3s, it can be a little deflating to the overall energy, I guess.”

The Lakers’ defense had been trending upward the past couple of weeks, but this was a major step back. Hopefully they clean things up on that end when they play the Charlotte Hornets at home on Thursday.

LeBron James says Lakers have to be more gritty

While LeBron James acknowledged the Lakers have been a good basketball team, he emphasized the need to be more gritty to become a great team.

Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? It’s the best way to watch player interviews, exclusive coverage from events, participate in live shows, and more!