“Ultimately, certain stuff just needs to be said and certain stuff needs to be done and we got to be able to communicate with each other and be receptive of it, whether it’s criticism or, we got to have them hard conversations,” Vanderbilt said. “JJ [was] alluding to that, that you got to have these conversations. We don’t want this to keep lingering. And right now it’s three in a row, but we don’t want it to keep going the wrong direction.”
Lakers coach JJ Redick questioned his team’s professionalism and commitment to winning after Thursday’s 23-point loss to Houston, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. The Rockets took control of the game early, building a 14-point lead in the first quarter and sustaining a double-digit advantage throughout the second half.
“We don’t care enough right now,” Redick said. “And that’s the part that bothers you a lot. We don’t care enough to do the things that are necessary. We don’t care enough to be a professional.”
Redick made similar comments after watching his team lose by 24 points to Phoenix on Tuesday. The Lakers have lost dropped three straight games and six of their last 10 and are now just three games away from falling into play-in tournament territory. Redick cited “effort and execution” as the difference on Thursday as Houston dominated the boards by a 48-25 margin and pulled down 17 offensive rebounds.
“Saturday’s practice — I told the guys — it’s going to be uncomfortable,” Redick said. “The meeting is going to be uncomfortable. I’m not doing another 53 games like this.”
Luka Doncic was able to return after leaving Saturday’s game with a lower left leg contusion, but he didn’t provide much of a spark. McMenamin notes that he turned the ball over three times in the first 2:11 and finished with six giveaways for the night. Rui Hachimura also returned after missing two games with a groin strain, but Austin Reaves experienced calf soreness and didn’t play after halftime. He’s set to undergo an MRI today.
“I don’t know what has to change, but definitely something needs to change,” Doncic said. “Think we (were) blown out the last three games. It definitely looks, like, terrible. We got to figure out, that’s the thing we have (to do). … We just got to talk about it. Everybody got to talk about it. I know JJ said it’s going to be uncomfortable (for everybody). As they should be. … Everybody has got to give better effort, starting with me.”
LeBron James also had a rough night as L.A. was outscored by 33 points in the 32:26 he was on the court. According to McMenamin, it was his worst plus-minus rating since joining the Lakers and the third worst of his career.
Jarred Vanderbilt, who came off the bench to contribute 11 points and five rebounds, also recognizes that changes need to happen before Sunday’s game against Sacramento.
For sure the conversation is going to be about defense. This team is not going to win a championship by playing as sloppy as they have, thinking they will make it up on offense (in large part due to costly turnovers). Ask the Thunder what it means to play from tip off to the final buzzer to know what that truly takes.
But aside from Smart, literally none of these guys on this roster are defense-minded. Poor roster construction.
Well, you are not going to win every single game, period…
Lakers are not a top 4 team in the west. JJ hjad a real easy schedule to strta the season now they go against tough teams.
Their schedule hasn’t been that easy, 15 out of 29 games vs losing teams. According to the ESPN calculation, they’re tied for the 6th hardest schedule so far and according to tankathon, have the 16th hardest remaining.
link to espn.com
link to tankathon.com
The Lakers chose this fate a long time ago, sorry to say. This is what happens when the only vision you have is pack whatever stars you can get your little star-grubby hands on on a team, hire a podcaster as your rookie coach, and just say “go”. They’re a cartoon, they’re not a serious professional sports franchise, they’re a soap opera, a joke, they’re drama fodder. This is how they make money in LA. They’re a stain on basketball, but the league will keep propping them up because they get eyeballs. This is their business model.
I’m from socal btw, and come from a Lakers family if anyone wants to question my motivation for saying this. These are genuine observations about how this franchise has operated for decades.
It’s a bit unfair to refer to Redick as a “podcaster”, considering his playing career.
It’s clear that the team has a terrible defense, and likely no realistic way to trade to improve it. As far as the league propping them up, that’s a fact.
The sky isn’t falling. Lakers are the 6th best team (record wise) and 6 games back of the Thunder. Do they have issues sure but with 2 superstars it can be fixed.
I don’t agree – they’re 26th in Def Rtg and have a Net Rtg of-0.5. How will they fix that?
I been saying this all year, the Lakers are overperforming early and the Warriors are underperforming early. Water will find its level. Lakers are barely a play-in team, Warriors are easy top 6.
Lakers roster construction is TERRIBLE. Luka, Reaves and Bron are all kind of similar shades of the same guy. They need proper bigs and wings and a trad PG who isn’t Marcus Smart. Trade Bron and Reeves and accent Luka with the right guys and they might rebound, but they aren’t it this season.
The history of Luka, LBJ, and Ayton tells anyone that their overall player performance is offense, Luka is a scorer he is not a rebounder, defensive stopper that is who he is plain and simple, LBJ is a slightly better defensive player than Luka, not a all-around player anymore at 42, and Ayton has a past that says he will take the game off if he is not included in the offensive end, He did it with Phoenix and Portland and now he does it with the Lakers. If you want to go farther Reaves is not even close to playing defense enough to slow down his opponent. Those four players start for the Lakers, the Laker roster is not a Championship caliber team, JJ Reddick is not a championship coach. Until the Laker management makes the appraisal of this roster make the changes, Luka and James cannot co-exist on the same team, Luka does not want to play defense, and James is just a mal content because he is not the go to player anymore, he is showing his age now. Ayton is a loss cause as a star NBA center, just not coming to play every night, takes to many nights off.