Max Christie gets brutally honest on playing through 'fire'

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LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Lakers have won four of their last five games, which coincides with when Max Christie became part of the starting lineup. Since then, Christie has contributed with all-around play, especially on the defensive end. Now in his third season with the Lakers, Max Christie attributes his development this year to being thrown into high pressure situations and being forced to swim.

"Just kind of being in the fire, to be honest, is how I've grown. I think in previous years I haven't been in a lot of high pressure, high stakes situations. This year I've had a few of those. You get thrown to the fire, you make a mistake, you learn from it," Christie told media following the Lakers' win against the Memphis Grizzlies on Dec. 15. "It's kind of just the growth of just being in the fire, failing a lot, and you got to fail before you succeed. So kind of just staying the course, one foot in front of the other when you make mistakes, and just kind of learning and doing the best I can."

In the past couple of weeks, Christie has seen himself placed in a couple of high pressure situations. The first came against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Nov. 29. With the Lakers trailing by four and less than a minute to go, Christie hit a clutch shot in the lane to cut the lead to two, 95-93, with 39.2 seconds left.

The Thunder had a shot clock, and provided that the Lakers got a stop, they would have had a shot at the potential game-winner. But Christie mistook JJ Redick calling out coverages as instructing him to foul. He immediately fouled Shai Gilgeous-Alexander after the inbound, and Gilgeous-Alexander's two free throws essentially sealed the win.

But fast forward to a week later, and Christie found himself in yet another high stakes situation against the Atlanta Hawks. With the scored tied at 119, Trae Young had the opportunity to win the game. But Christie blocked his shot and it went into overtime. Although the Lakers ultimately lost in extra minutes, he showed much more poise in crunch time.

Max Christie's development for Lakers this season

As mentioned before, the Lakers have gone 4-1 since Christie entered the starting lineup. There are other factors that have contributed to that stretch, but there's no denying the impact that the former Michigan State standout has had.

During one of the Lakers' best wins of the season so far, 116-110 against the Memphis Grizzlies, Christie's defense on Ja Morant throughout the game was crucial. Following that game, Redick praised Christie for his court awareness and ability to learn from game to game.

"Max has a really good feel for the game and he can move. . .just in terms of his long-term outlook and his growth, I think these opportunities are great for him. I'll reference the Oklahoma City game where he made a mistake at the end. We play a week later in Atlanta and he's in sort of the same situation at the end of regulation and he gets a block on Trae Young," Redick said.

"With young guys, these opportunities are great for them to grow, not only in confidence but also just the learned experience and the learned knowledge of being in different situations," Redick continued.

This season, he has appeared in 27 games, including six starts. Christie has shaken off a slow start to the season and has been averaging 6.2 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists. For him, it's all about continuing to grow and learn.

"It feels good and it's pretty cool kind of just to see the progression and the growth in terms of just me over the last three years," Christie said. "To be honest, I think I've slowly gotten a little bit better, been put in more tense situations, more important situation. And I think these are good experiences for me. . .I think it's cool for me just to kind of reflect on the growth that I've had. And then I want to keep that going."

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