The Los Angeles Lakers fell to 2-2 in this 2025-26 season following a 122-108 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday at Crypto.com Arena. The short-handed Lakers had surprisingly beaten the Sacramento Kings on Sunday, but were unable to replicate that feat on the second night of a back-to-back. Here’s what head coach JJ Redick had to say postgame on how his team fared on the night.
Q: “JJ, you knew it was going to be difficult to generate as many good shots with so many guys out… Was that ultimately, I guess, expected, or what were you trying to get to that was just difficult with the personnel that was out there?”
JJ Redick: “It’s hard to run offense without ball handlers.”
Q: “With that said, is it tough to then take too much away from the game, or are there certain things?”
Redick: “No, I took a lot away. Again, our half-court defense was excellent. First shot defense was excellent. Saw, for the most part, outside a couple of guys, just a highly competitive spirit, connected group. You can build on that.”
Q: “Do you know who you might be able to get back ahead of the next game at this point?”
Redick: “Hopeful on Jaxson [Hayes]. Hopeful on Marcus [Smart]. Yeah, hopeful, but we’ll see.”
Q: “[About] Austin, you said, ‘Hey, we’re not going to rely on him to get 50 tonight.’ He did get 40+. What did you see that was working for him? And obviously, you mentioned the ball-handling part going into tonight. You said like, ‘Hey, all the pressure is gonna be on him. It’s going to be hard to generate and take care of it.’ He had eight turnovers, but what did you see was working for him tonight?”
Redick: “Well, first half, they played the five on our five. To start that third quarter, we had said, whoever the five is guarding, be a pressure release, and just didn’t do a good job of that during the first quarter. They basically were cross-matching. Jrue [Holiday] did a good job, ala Draymond Green, of just screwing the game up. And there wasn’t another guy to bring the ball up. So, it’s just circumstantial.”
The Lakers were without seven players for this game against the Trail Blazers. LeBron James, Luka Doncic, Gabe Vincent, and Marcus Smart were among the absentees, and that meant Redick only really had Austin Reaves as a reliable ball-handler out there.
Reaves racked up 41 points (13-22 FG), four rebounds, five assists, and three steals against the Trail Blazers, but also had eight turnovers. You can’t be too hard on the 27-year-old for not taking better care of the ball, considering the circumstances. When you’re being pressured to the extent he was, mistakes are inevitable.
Reaves didn’t get a whole lot of help from the rest of the team either. Deandre Ayton had 16 points (8-15 FG), eight rebounds, two assists, two steals, and one block. It was a solid outing, but he wasn’t quite as good as he was against the Kings, when he put up 22 points and 15 rebounds. While you can understand the dip in scoring, Ayton needs to be better on the glass, especially during this tough stretch.
The undermanned Lakers are in action next against the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center on Wednesday at 9:30 PM ET. The Timberwolves will be without Anthony Edwards, who has suffered a hamstring strain, so the Lakers do catch a break.
