The heavily undermanned Los Angeles Lakers were blown out 123-87 by the Oklahoma City Thunder at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday. While the nature of the defeat was bad enough, Lakers head coach JJ Redick and forward Jarred Vanderbilt also got into a heated exchange in the second quarter.
Vanderbilt would play no further part in the game after that, but Redick insisted all was well when asked what led to the altercation in his postgame press conference.
“Just a confluence of things,” Redick said, via Spectrum SportsNet. “Again, it’s nothing personal with him. Normal stuff from my end. I think for all of us, being undermanned, we’ve got to scrap and claw, we’ve got to all be on the same page, we got to be great teammates, we got to all play hard. Called a timeout to get him out of the game, and he reacted. But again, normal interaction for me.”
Redick inserted Vanderbilt into the game with 4:25 left in the first quarter. The 27-year-old would stay in the game for the rest of the period and then started the second quarter as well. Just 16 seconds into it, though, Redick called a timeout and decided to sub Vanderbilt out for Dalton Knecht. To say the veteran was not a fan of that decision might be an understatement.
As Redick was devising a play near the free-throw line during the break, Vanderbilt approached him and appeared to have some strong words. Austin Reaves and assistant coach Nate McMillan attempted to calm him down and defuse the situation, but to no avail. Vanderbilt and Redick later exchanged words on the Lakers’ bench as well.
Another snippet of the interaction between Jarred Vanderbilt and JJ Redick during the Lakers’ timeout early in the 2Q. https://t.co/BOcdzjXrpI pic.twitter.com/hISVkYYevW
— Khobi Price (@khobi_price) April 8, 2026
It wasn’t quite apparent why Redick had decided to sub Vanderbilt out at that moment. The 41-year-old was later asked in his presser what the forward hadn’t done during his shift to be taken out.
“It was a confluence of things,” Redick stated.
Redick clearly wasn’t interested in getting into the details. Vanderbilt, meanwhile, declined to even speak to the media after the game. That might have been a wise decision with how heated he was.
Vanderbilt finished with three points (1-1 FG), two rebounds, one assist, and one steal against the Thunder. He had committed a bad turnover in the first quarter and then missed three free throws at the end of it, which might have contributed to Redick subbing him out.
Vanderbilt still probably would have been put back in the game at some point if not for the altercation. The Lakers were without Reaves, Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Marcus Smart, and Jaxson Hayes against the Thunder. If there was ever a time for a reserve to get an extended run, it was this game.
This was a great opportunity that Vanderbilt squandered, and you wonder how big a role he plays moving forward. Redick had previously removed him from the rotation from about mid-November to early December. Vanderbilt played just once in what was a 10-game stretch and was only on the court for about three minutes in that one game.
Redick brought Vanderbilt back into the rotation after that stretch, but then took him out again at various points in March. He didn’t play eight games in total during the month as the Lakers went 15-2.
Redick had revealed back then what he and the coaching staff wanted to see from Vanderbilt. The coach pointed to gambling on defense being an issue, and said he had to do better with the next action when the ball is swung to him. It doesn’t look like there’s been enough improvement in both these areas.
Getting back to this game, the Lakers have now lost three in a row to drop to 50-29. They take on the Golden State Warriors next at Chase Center on Thursday at 10 p.m. ET. Defeat there could see the Lakers drop to fifth in the West.
