JJ Redick didn’t hold back while discussing the effort of his Los Angeles Lakers during their 127-102 loss to the Denver Nuggets. During a press conference two days after the loss, Redick lamented his team’s lack of competitive spirit and made it clear his tactical planning can’t save them from these situations if the players don’t give in the effort.
“We can all be better. The organization has to be there, and there’s only so much we can do. I can joystick it [as a coach] as much as I want, but if you’re not competing and you’re not playing and just not participating in the game, there’s not a whole lot I can do.”
“That’s an aberration to me. We’ve been punched in the mouth so much during games. We’ve been down, came back, we’ve started slow, we’ve started strong, we’ve had adversity in nearly every game. That start of the third quarter was an aberration, that’s not who we are. I reiterated that to the team and we showed them who we are on tape.”
“It’s not a thing that weighed on me much yesterday, it’s just about how we focus on today and this week, it’s a big week for us. It was an aberration, it’s not who we are.”
JJ Redick with a blunt assessment on the 2nd half vs DEN: “I can joystick it [as a coach] as much as I want, but if you’re not competing and you’re not playing and just not participating in the game, there’s not a whole lot I can do.” He added that it was an “aberration” by LAL pic.twitter.com/ZjFCyZv8QX
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) November 25, 2024
The Lakers entered the second half of their loss to the Nuggets with a six-point lead but ended the night with a 25-point loss. This happened due to a shockingly bad third quarter for the Lakers, where they were outscored 37-15 which put them out of the game before the fourth quarter even started. The Lakers ended the game just as flat, being outscored 33-24 in the final 12 minutes.
After the loss, Redick believed his team was affected by a general fear of the Nuggets which came from their past encounters and affected the team’s spirit in this loss.
“Schematically, certainly we’ll have to review some stuff. Clearly, the spirit to compete just wasn’t there.” I have a pretty clear idea of what happened in the third,” Redick said. “But whatever it was, it was not because we were haunted by the ghosts of the past or something like that. It was kind of obvious to me what happened there. Just not the right spirit.”
The Lakers have beaten the Nuggets once in their last five matchups, not including the losses the Lakers suffered to them during the last regular season and the 2023 Playoffs. It’s a boogeyman matchup for the Lakers, one they’ll hope they can overcome in their next meeting on 22 February.
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