JJ Redick attributed LeBron James’ torrid shooting night to a quality Phoenix Suns defense and the Lakers’ lack of dominance in the paint. James ended his night with just 11 points on 3-14 shooting from the field and 2-5 from the deep as LA went down 109-105 at the Footprint Center on Monday.
James’ woes were compounded after he was defended by the Suns players who at one point ensured he couldn’t get his shot off on time, leading to an angry Redick on the sidelines.
Speaking to the media in the aftermath of the loss, the head coach believed that it was on all of LA’s players to have missed make-able shots in the paint the lack of which cost them the game.
“To be honest with you, we missed a lot of Paint 2s. For him [LeBron James], those are shots that he makes before he misses those one-leggers right in the paint. We gave him the space, they were very intentional about flooding when he was iso on that even wing, something we probably need to talk about. It felt like we gave him space on those isos, we all just missed shots in the paint.”
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Anthony Davis led the Lakers with 29 points and 14 rebounds. Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura propped up 23 and 20 points respectively. LeBron James ended his evening with 11 points, five rebounds, and eight assists.
“We should have never had the 14-pt quarter”: JJ Redick takes accountability for Lakers’ dismal 2nd quarter vs Suns amid LeBron James’ shooting woes
After starting off the game with a solid 26-8 run, the Lakers surrendered an 18-point lead to trail 50-48 at halftime. JJ Redick took the blame on himself for not drawing up a plan to course-correct the sputtering offense that only managed 14 points in the second quarter. Per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin:
“If there’s one thing to nitpick it’s probably me. We should never have a 14-point quarter … that’s on me.”
The result was the first Lakers loss that Redick and the belligerent LA unit suffered. It didn’t help that LeBron James had an off night on the scoring front.
Up next, JJ Redick and the Lakers will look to regroup and play to their strengths in a tough matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers who are on a stellar 4-0 run to start the season. They have four games left on their road trip.
