Redick lauds Lakers’ practice, bemoans earlier lack of focus

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick mentioned Monday was the “best practice we’ve had in months,” as L.A. ready for Sport 2 of its first-round sequence with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The primary-year coach admitted, nonetheless, that had the Lakers approached their off days main as much as the playoffs with the identical vigor, then possibly they would not have appeared as flat as they did in Saturday’s 117-95 Sport 1 loss.

“We probably could have done a few more scrimmages,” Redick mentioned Monday.

Redick mentioned L.A. used Sunday’s movie session to overview the protection that allowed the Wolves to shoot 21-for-42 on 3-pointers within the sequence opener. On Monday, he mentioned the Lakers “played live for a very extended period of time” to deal with L.A.’s offense.

“Hopefully we can just right our wrongs,” Lakers guard Austin Reaves mentioned Monday. “We played bad; they shot the ball really well. They’re obviously a really good team that’s physical. We got to match that. Tomorrow it’ll be different story.”

Reaves was restricted to 16 factors on 5-for-13 capturing and registered a plus-minus of minus-25 in 37 minutes.

“S—ty,” Reaves mentioned of his efficiency after reviewing movie. “I wasn’t myself. To what the reason was, don’t know. But just got to go out there and be myself, play my game and have fun doing it.”

Redick pointed to his group’s general lack of group as a serious contributing think about L.A. falling down by as many as 27 factors to the Wolves.

“I think a lot of times you would hear that word and then you would think, ‘Oh, it’s the point guard calling a play,'” Redick mentioned. “No, it’s just all of the normal stuff that we try to do, and when we do it, we’re really good. Being organized is screening. Being organized is getting to the proper spacing. Being organized is getting the corners filled after makes and misses. That’s being organized.”

Defensively, the Lakers have been notably burned by Minnesota making 3s from the corners. The Wolves’ 9 nook 3-pointers have been tied for his or her second most in a recreation this season (together with the common season), based on GeniusIQ. All 9 of these makes got here on kickout passes, which accounted for the second-most made nook 3s from kickout passes in a playoff recreation by any group since participant monitoring started in 2013-14. And people nook 3s have been typically huge open, because the Wolves had a mean separation of 8.6 ft between their shooter and the closest L.A. defender in Sport 1, per GeniusIQ.

Lakers ahead Dorian Finney-Smith mentioned a few of it got here all the way down to lack of defensive recognition.

“Try to get guys like Naz Reid off the line,” Finney-Smith mentioned Monday after Reid scored 23 factors and went 6-for-9 from deep within the opener. “He ain’t gonna shoot too many pull-up 2s. He probably going to the rim or shoot a 3, so we got to get him off the line.”

Finney-Smith additionally admitted that he allowed his private offense — or lack thereof — to dictate his protection after scoring simply 3 factors on 1-for-5 capturing in Sport 1.

“I got to be a little bit more active,” he mentioned. “Last game, I allowed not touching the ball to kind of mess with my energy, and I got to be better.”

Within the days because the disappointing begin, L.A. has needed to rationalize what occurred after the Lakers have been in a position to win so many pressure-packed video games down the stretch to safe the No. 3 seed within the Western Convention. Redick referred to as the hole in physicality between the Lakers and Wolves an “aberration.”

Reaves mentioned L.A. merely confirmed “uncharacteristic issues.” And analytics backed him, with the Lakers capturing simply 1-for-8 off Luka Doncic passes, based on ESPN Analysis. Doncic’s lone help was nicely under his profession postseason common of seven.8.

Finally, the Lakers will get an opportunity to win a recreation on their residence courtroom Tuesday to even the sequence.

“It’s a wake-up call in the sense of we have to be preparing every single possession,” Reaves mentioned. Added Redick: “We just have to do a lot of things better, and it starts with playing harder and being organized.”