PHILADELPHIA — JJ Redick’s voice over the last two weeks has begun to sound gravelly, the routine of screaming his way through game after game starting to wear on his vocal chords.
The yelling has been a necessity, the Lakers being a team that needs constant reminders of the points Redick and his coaching staff have tried to emphasize. And before Tuesday’s game, Redick calmly delivered the biggest point they wanted to make.
“We have to play a smart game,” he said deliberately.
In their Monday night win in Charlotte, the Lakers played hard. But after the first quarter, they rarely played smart, recklessly passing the ball all over the court. That couldn’t happen again — even with the Philadelphia 76ers playing minus Joel Embiid and Paul George.
The Lakers, Redick said, needed to play a smart game. They did not and paid dearly, losing 118-104.
The Lakers turned the ball over 22 times and trailed by as many as 25 points. LeBron James had eight of those turnovers, though he scored 31 points. Rookie Dalton Knecht had 24 points off the bench.
Tyrese Maxey led everyone with 43 points, the 76ers having beaten the Lakers seven straight times in Philadelphia by an average of 18.3 points.
The pregame calm quickly evaporated, Redick screaming at his team to “run a play” — a phrase that had some added profanity — before snatching the ball after calling a timeout, grabbing it like he was trying to squeeze the air out of it.
After the game, Redick pointed to fatigue for the performance.
“I’m not sure where our collective brains were at,” Redick said. “I understand the physical fatigue. We were a step slow all night on Maxey …. And then, I mean, frankly, you’re not going to win a game if somebody takes 19 more shots than you and gets eight more offensive rebounds. Like, we’re throwing the ball everywhere. I think that is just, again, fatigue, mental and physical, just bad decision-making. Poor execution, very unorganized throughout the game. Not our best.”
James threw his hands up after firing a pass well behind a cutting Rui Hachimura. Max Christie’s eyes went to the sky after a defensive miscommunication left him covering, on the same play, a player on the right block and one in the left corner. And Redick’s eyes locked onto the court as he shook his head, his team submerged under an avalanche of mistakes.
“It sucks,” guard Austin Reaves said. “You feel like you can’t get a good break. And every time you mess up, it feels like the other team executes on your turnover, on your missed box-out, whatever it is that you don’t execute. I feel like the other team takes advantage of that.”
The Lakers (26-19) opened the game with energy and intention, quickly leading by nine points. But Bronny James, playing because the Lakers were without Gabe Vincent for the second straight game, had a rough shift on Maxey, helping change the momentum.
“Felt like on a back-to-back, just him giving us energy, I think, was the goal. You know, maybe put him in a tough spot,” Redick said of James. “Flying up yesterday, nationally televised game in Philly and all that stuff. He didn’t play well, but he’s been playing great in the stay-ready games and he’s been playing great in the G [League]. So I have confidence in him, but obviously didn’t provide that at a high level.”
And then with two minutes to go in the first quarter, Anthony Davis left the game holding his side. He didn’t return, the team ruling him out because of an abdominal muscle strain.
The Lakers didn’t have a postgame update, though LeBron James said he thought Davis would be “fine.”
“When our best player goes out, it’s always challenging, especially in the game,” James said. “If he’s out from the beginning, then we have a game plan set. We know what to expect, we know what our lineup is gonna be. But when AD or any one of our guys go down throughout the course of a game, it’s just tough.”
Without their best defender, the Lakers’ defense was cooked by Maxey, the guard sprinting past whoever tried to cover him to either score or draw a foul. The defense was so atrocious in the second quarter that the Lakers shot 70.6% from the field and still were outscored 48-32.
Philadelphia shot 16 free throws in the second quarter alone, Dorian Finney-Smith picking up three of his four first-half fouls in the quarter when Maxey broke past the initial line of defense.
The Lakers also were without Jarred Vanderbilt, the team electing to hold him out on the second night of a back-to-back after he missed the first 42 games. Hachimura returned and scored 13 points after missing the previous two games.
The Lakers play again Thursday in Washington against the NBA-worst Wizards.
This story originally appeared on LA Times
