JJ Redick, LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
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LeBron James kept his double-digit scoring streak alive, but that didn't make him immune from criticism from head coach JJ Redick in the loss.
The Los Angeles Lakers lost their first game in weeks after a subpar performance against the Phoenix Suns. While Luka Doncic led the team with 38 points, despite nine turnovers, Austin Reaves, and specifically LeBron James, struggled on the offensive side of the floor.
Though James managed to continue his historic 1,298 consecutive games scoring double-digit points, thatdidn’t make him immune from criticism from his head coach, JJ Redick, who turned heads with the message he sent to James while the Lakers were down by 21 points late in the third quarter.
James was talking with the Phoenix Suns bench, specifically to his former teammate, Jordan Goodwin, and despite ‘Bron!‘calls from his head coach, the 21-time All-Star continued to talk to his opponents well after Redick called a timeout.
Though Redickdidn’t address this moment in his postgame press conferencewith the media, hemade sure to saythat hewasn’t happy with how his team performed as a whole. It was the first time this year neither James or Reaves hit the 20-point mark, while the Lakerswere heavily outdueled in the turnover andfastbreak points battlefor their first loss since November 12th.
JJ Redick On TheLakers’ Loss
James keeping his double-digit scoring streak alive was one of the lasting talking pointsof the night, but Redick made it clearthat he has changes to make to ensure a loss to a team like the shorthanded Sunsdoesn’t happen again.
“If youdon’t play hard against that team,you’re going to get exposed,”Redick said. “We talked about matching their physicality.Didn’t do that to any extent, at any point in the game.”
The Lakers lost the turnover battle 21-11 to Phoenix, and gave up 28 totalfast-break points compared to their lowly 2. Los Angeles did grab more total rebounds, but after being outscored by 14 in the second quarter, it never looked like they had the game within reach.
“In the moments when we had a chance tobe rewarded, wedidn’t do what we were supposed to do, and we got punished. That was throughout the game, not a single moment,”Redick said before then being asked as to howhe’ll fix the issues present in the loss to the Suns. “You got to look at everything, everything. Rotations, schemes, all that stuff.”
James has been slowin his return from sciatica, with only one game scoring more than 20 points, but his timeout situation with the Phoenix bench and Redick was one of the memorable momentsfrom the night. The Lakers as a whole looked off against the mainly Devin Booker-less Suns, as the loss snapped a seven-game win streak.
Redick On Jarred Vanderbilt
While Redick was visibly frustrated with his roster during and after the game,there has been another question about Jarred Vanderbiltthat fansare still wonderingabout. The forward has yet to see any on-court action in the past six games, and was the only player on LosAngeles’ roster not to play in the loss to the Suns.
According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN, before the contest, Redick said the 26-year-old has ‘been good‘and knew a minutes restriction would come into effect once James returned.
Dave McMenamin
Jarred Vanderbilt played in the first 14 games of the season for the Lakers. Then he’s received a DNP in the last five, even though he’s healthy. Lakers coach JJ Redick explained the lineup decision before L.A. hosted Phoenix on Monday.
“He’s been good.He’s been a pro,he’s been great in the most recent stay-ready that we had this week,”Redick said. “I communicated to him before LeBron came back that there were certain things that he needed to be able to do consistently to play before LeBron came back, after LeBron came back, and that there was potentially gonna be a numbers crunch because we probably were gonna play a nine-man rotation, and that was just the reality.”
However, Vanderbilthasn’t played at all since James came back, and despite playing in theteam’s first 14 games, starting in two of them, he is now out of the rotation.
Writing for LakeShowLife, Svyatoslav Rovenchuk urged Redick and the Lakers to feature Vanderbiltin the lineup more.Though heisn’t the most impactfulplayer on offense, he would be a solid addition on the defensive endof the floor, ashe’s shown throughout his career.
“Getting Vanderbilt on the court could have been the answer for replacing the energy and tenacity thatis brought by [Marcus] Smart,”he wrote. “However, it also sounded like there is work tobe done before Redick can trust Vanderbilt completely on the court again.”