Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick
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Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick
In the course of his time in the NBA, Lakers coach JJ Redick has seen some things. He was a player for 15 years, and that included the league cramming together a lockout schedule back in 2011, the wild “bubble” season of 2019-20 and the Covid-shortened year that followed. But rare is the kind of stretch his Lakers are on now, in which he has seen the team follow up on 16 games in January by playing seven in the first 12 days of February.
It’s not so much that the Lakers have played four back-to-backs in that stretch. In fact, Redick might like a few more. The problem has been that the Lakers have had no two-day breaks between games, making it impossible to hold a practice and reset themselves.
The Lakers are heading into the All-Star weekend, which will be held in L.A., and it’ll be a much-needed rest for the team. Because NBA rules call for teams to report back to work on Wednesday, the Lakers will get their first practices in seven weeks late next week before resuming against the Clippers on Friday, February 20.
Lakers’ Schedule Has Been Nonstop
Redick is not all that happy with the structure of the Lakers’ schedule, which has kept them grinding since Christmas.
“This is probably the hardest schedule that I’ve been part of in 17 years in the league prior to All-Star break. It’s not that it gets any easier,” Redick said.
“We don’t have two days—the last time we practiced was December 27. We don’t have two days between games from that point until late March. Almost a three-month stretch. We’ll be able to get some work done in next week on Wednesday and Thursday. It will be good for everybody for the mental and physical reset.”
‘You Take That’
All in all, it has not been a bad showing in the first half of the season for the Lakers, and Redick said that, while it is a struggle to keep that kind of perspective in the day-to-day grip of a season, the break allows him to zoom out.
The Lakers are 33-21, No. 5 in the West and a half-game behind the Rockets for No. 4 (1.5 games behind Denver for No. 3).
“The micro day-to-day stuff that you fret over. You think about all day long,” Redick said. “That’s one part of this job. The other part is the macro stuff. The big picture stuff.”
The Lakers have had issues, especially defensively, but they’ve also had significant injuries to LeBron James, Austin Reaves and more recently, Luka Doncic. The Lakers are 9-5 in their last 14 games.
“Look, if you told me, in September that we’d be top five in the West, and then we only had those guys for 10 games, you take that,” Redick said. “It certainly doesn’t mean that the day-to-day internal pressure you put on yourself, I know the guys put on themselves because they care, does not mean that’s gonna go away, but you have to feel good about the last 14 games outside of the San Antonio game the other night.”