The Los Angeles Lakers snapped their three-game losing streak with a dominant 129-101 win over the undermanned Golden State Warriors at Chase Center on Saturday. Lakers head coach JJ Redick was delighted with what he saw from his team and sent an optimistic message in his postgame press conference.
“These guys want to do it right,” Redick said, via Spectrum SportsNet. “They’re trying. I know our staff, myself, we’re always looking for answers and solutions. That’s what this is. We’re trying to find solutions. I said before the game, I’m confident we are going to find that level that we want to get to.
“And it’s been partially just because of the disruption of lineups and different factors, we just haven’t had the continuity that I thought we were going to have coming into the year,” Redick added. “And it’s taken longer than I thought, but I’m confident we’re going to get there.”
The Lakers have had to deal with more than their fair share of injuries this season. It’s often been brought up just how little Luka Doncic, LeBron James, and Austin Reaves have gotten to play together. The Lakers have now had all three on the court for 15 games this season following this Warriors clash.
Doncic has admitted that the chemistry isn’t quite there yet with James and Reaves. These three might not be a great fit together, as they are all at their best with the ball in their hands, but they should get better the more they play together.
Doncic, James, and Reaves combined for 66 points here on 23-41 (56.1%) shooting from the field. Granted, the opposition wasn’t great, as the Warriors were without Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler, but they looked better than they have in the past.
Getting back to Redick, he had believed that the Lakers were trending in the right direction in certain areas as they exited the All-Star break. They then beat the Los Angeles Clippers 125-122 on Feb. 20 to get off to a winning start to this second half of the season. What followed, though, was disaster.
The Boston Celtics first crushed the Lakers 111-89 on Sunday. The Orlando Magic then piled on the misery by overcoming a 12-point deficit and sneaking away with a 110-109 win on Tuesday. While those were bad losses, the worst was to come.
The Lakers took on a Phoenix Suns team without Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks on Thursday and lost 113-110. It was arguably the worst loss of the season for Redick’s squad. With how bad the Lakers have been post the break, it was no surprise that the 41-year-old thinks this was their most complete game.
“It goes back to just finding that consistent level of playing the right way on both ends,” Redick stated. “Doing what we’re supposed to be doing, executing at a high level. You saw those trends. We haven’t had it for a sustained full stretch of a game, really. It’s come in spurts in all four of our games that we’ve played prior to this. It was definitely our most complete game post All-Star break.”
The Lakers improved to 35-24 with this win over the Warriors and remain sixth in the Western Conference. They will take on the Sacramento Kings next at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday at 9:30 p.m. ET.
