The Los Angeles Lakers‘ preseason didn’t get off to an ideal start as the Phoenix Suns blew them out 103-81 at Acrisure Arena on Friday. There were only a handful of positives to take from this game for the Lakers, and head coach JJ Redick spoke postgame about what he was looking for from his team and what he actually saw.
“Three things, run, talk, compete,” Redick said. “I thought, given the workload of the last three days, our ability to run and play hard was pretty good. I would say our talk was not good, and I would say the stretch at the end of the first quarter and to start the third was not competitive. Again, I’m not expecting perfection in a preseason game, but there’s room for growth in those areas.
“Look, the reality, and this is not an excuse, this is quite literally reality, they’ve had 19 guys in the gym all of September,” Redick continued. “They did their installs similar to how we did last year in September. They were able to get a lot of their installs in. They’ve had seven practices. They’re ahead of us from that perspective. They have more stuff in.
“I felt that more on the defensive end,” Redick added. “They clearly have a lot of their concepts, schemes, all that stuff really, really tight. We just haven’t had enough time. We’ll get there, I’m very confident.”
The Lakers were also without a lot of notable names here. LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Marcus Smart, Gabe Vincent, Maxi Kleber, and Adou Thiero were all out. Redick had previously announced that James Smart, Kleber, and Thiero would be out for this one. Doncic was then ruled out on game day along with Vincent. The Slovenian will miss the next preseason game against the Golden State Warriors as well, with his summer activities at EuroBasket 2025 being taken into consideration.
All these absentees meant Austin Reaves had to take center stage, and he finished with 20 points (6-11 FG), three rebounds, and two assists in just under 21 minutes. He was one of the few bright spots, along with Jarred Vanderbilt, who impressed on the defensive end.
“I thought Vando played extremely hard, was very disruptive,” Redick stated. “[Christian Kololo’s] minutes were great. Good for Austin to be able to score efficiently in a limited amount of time. RJ [Davis] was a bright spot in that second half, so there were some good stuff.”
On the other end of the spectrum, Deandre Ayton and Jake LaRavia didn’t have the best of performances on their preseason debuts for the Lakers. Ayton had one point (0-2 FG), eight rebounds, one assist, one steal, and two blocks, and got trolled by Devin Booker in the first quarter as well. LaRavia, meanwhile, put up seven points (3-6 FG), five rebounds, and one assist.
It’s, of course, too early to pass judgment on the new arrivals or anyone else who stepped out on the court on Friday night. This was just the first of six preseason contests for the Lakers, and Redick would be hoping to see progress on the three things he mentioned as the games go by.
