The Los Angeles Lakers suffered their second consecutive loss on Monday night, falling to the Brooklyn Nets with a 111-108 final score.
The Lakers were severely shorthanded in this matchup as LeBron James, Jaxson Hayes, Dorian Finney-Smith and Rui Hachimura were each ruled out with various injury issues.
While the Lakers weren't at full strength, Los Angeles head coach JJ Redick didn't accept that as a valid excuse for his team's performance on Monday night.
During his postgame press conference at the Barclays Center, Redick called out the Lakers' lack of communication and "shortcuts" in execution.
"I don't think being shorthanded is an excuse for how we played basketball tonight," Redick said. "... I think it was just an overall mentality to take shortcuts tonight, we just wanted to take shortcuts... If you want to be a good team and win in the NBA, you've got to do the hard stuff. We couldn't even pass to each other."
"I don't know what we're doing," he continued. "... We just gotta be better, and we'll use practice to clean things up and make sure everybody's on the same page."
JJ Redick says on @SpectrumSN that the Lakers had a "very low-level communication game."
He says "being shorthanded was not an excuse for how we played basketball tonight... We just wanted to take shortcuts."
— Lakers Nation (@LakersNation) March 11, 2025
Luka Doncic recorded a 22-point, 12-assist, 12-rebounds triple-double in Monday night's loss. Austin Reaves chipped in with a near triple-double of his own, notching 17 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds.
Before Saturday night's loss to the Boston Celtics, the Lakers had won each of their last eight games. LeBron James suffered a groin injury in the loss at TD Garden and is expected to miss the next 1-2 weeks.
The Lakers will look to get back on track in another road matchup against the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night.
Related: Bucks Make Giannis Antetokounmpo Announcement After Loss to Cavaliers
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This story was originally published March 10, 2025 at 9:38 PM.