Following a crushing loss, Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick left his news conference after being questioned about his team’s work ethic.
The Lakers lost to the Memphis Grizzlies 131-114 on the road, dropping them to 4-4 on the season.
LeBron James of the Lakers put out a fantastic effort in that game, one that the rest of the Los Angeles team was unable to match.
Redick was questioned about how he would respond to the fact that LeBron performed better than his teammates after the game.
As he got up and began to leave, Redick informed reporters, “I just did.” “That was the first thing I said to them,” he added.
That followed almost eight minutes of interrogation, during which Redick frequently lamented the lack of effort on the part of his squad.
Rui Hachimura and Anthony Davis were benched due to injuries, but James led the way with 39 points.
Redick, however, stated that “none of us are” happy with the rest of the team’s performance since they frequently fail to match up with their guys or hustle back on defence.
LeBron was outstanding tonight, in my opinion. The most notable aspect of it was… Redick remarked, “He played hard.” He was our team’s hardest player and was almost 40 years old. It speaks volumes about him.
Redick singled out veteran D’Angelo Russell, who finished with 12 points on a 4-for-12 shooting line and hitting 2-of-9 from outside the arc in a season-low 22 minutes.
In reference to cutting Russell’s second-half playing time, Redick stated, “Just level of compete, attention to detail, some of the things we’ve talked with him about for a couple of weeks and at times, he’s been really good with that stuff and other times, it’s just reverting back to certain habits.”
However, it wasn’t a form of punishment. We simply believed that was the path we wanted to take in order to have a chance to win this game.
It concluded LA’s arduous and protracted road trip, which finished 1-4 with their lone victory coming against the Toronto Raptors.
“It comes down to decisions.” It has nothing to do with making shots; it’s something we’ve talked about as a team, and you get to choose how you play each night,” Redick stated.
We’re a tremendously good basketball team, and there must be a group of seven or eight individuals who make that decision.
The truth is that we won’t be a strong basketball team that evening because we have a handful, two, or three.
“To be honest, that’s the main lesson I learnt.”
