After the heavy defeat suffered against i Memphis Grizzliescoach JJ Redick clearly expressed his frustration with the attitude of the Los Angeles Lakersunderlining the great commitment of LeBron James. The yellow and purple coach did not spare a real “lecture” for D’Angelo Russell, on the bench for almost the entire second half.
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👑 JJ Redick: «LeBron James was fantastic»
At the end of the match, when he was asked if he felt satisfied with his team’s effort, JJ Redick he did not hide his disappointment: “Not even one of us is.”
The Lakers coach used LeBron James – 1,500 regular season appearances, sixth overall in NBA history – as an example of how other players should approach the game: «I think LeBron was fantastic tonight. I had no idea he scored 39 points until after the game. I never look at the statistics during the race. But he played with determination. Almost 40 years old and he is the one who played with the most intensity. That says a lot about him.”
When asked about the limited running time of D’Angelo Russell (six minutes into the second half, 22 in total), Redick responded: «Simply because of the level of competition. Attention to detail. Some things we’ve talked to him about over the last few weeks. Sometimes he was really good at this, other times he reverted to certain behaviors. It wasn’t a punishment, I simply thought that, to have a chance of winning this match, this was the way to go.”
«Gabe [Vincent]especially in the first half, was fantastic in defense. I wanted to see how the situation would evolve. DLo attempted some good finishes, like Dalton [Knecht] eAustin [Reaves]. They didn’t score and, sometimes, these errors can change the momentum of the game, especially when they generate wide open three-pointers in the corners.»
With the team set to return to Los Angeles, Redick said the most important lesson of the trip is that the Lakers need a consistent level of focus and intensity to compete. When they were there, they showed that they were the team seen at the beginning of the season. When they weren’t there, they were overwhelmed. «It all comes back to choices. It’s something we’ve talked about as a group. Every time you have a choice about how to play, and it has nothing to do with whether or not you make a basket. There has to be a group of people, seven, eight players, who make this decision. And we’re a really good basketball team. But when there’s only two or three of us on the field, we’re not going to be a good team that night. So this is the reality.”
When asked how he intended to address the issue with his players, JJ Redick’s response was blunt “I just did it”dropping the microphone on the table. As he walked away, he shouted at the journalists: “That’s the first thing I told him.”
📅 Next Game
I Los Angeles Lakers they return to the field at night (4:00 🇮🇹) between Friday 8 and Saturday 9 November to face the Philadelphia 76ers all crypto.com Arena.
Cover: JJ Redick during the Grizzlies-Lakers contest at the FedExForum on Nov. 6, 2024. (Nikki Boertman, AP Photo)
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