Austin Reaves heaped praise on his coach JJ Redick after the LA Lakers win over the Houston Rockets.
Led by Luka Doncic‘s 39-point performance, the team dominated the Houston Rockets as they secured a 140-109 win and clinched the third seed in the Western Conference.
Austin Reaves also had a splendid night as he added 23 points, seven rebounds and six assists on an efficient 60% shooting from the field.
The win meant the LA Lakers got to 50 wins, an a feat the Purple and Gold last achieved when they last won the championship in 2020.
Redick, who was brought in as the head coach in the offseason has helped the team come a long way and improved the team massively especially on the defensive end of the floor.
Reaves, the front runner for the Most Improved Player award has also raised his game under Redick and gave the first year coach a lot of praise after the win.
The decision to bring in Redick as the head coach of the Lakers was not a popular one.
Many analysts doubted the choice as the former NBA player had no professional coaching experience.
However, Redick has proven all his critics wrong and his side is one of the most dangerous sides heading into the playoffs.
Speaking about Redick, Reaves said: “When the Lakers hired him, I had talked to him a couple of times previously and I knew his IQ of the game, but obviously there was all this talks about he’s never coached at any type of high level or anything like that.
“Since day 1, he’s been super professional, super locked-in to one goal and that is getting the team to buy in to what the coaching staff wants, so he’s been huge in what we’ve done and I cannot give him enough credit for what he’s done for me , the team happy to go to war for him any day.”
Considering the fact that Redick has never coached at a high level before, the 50-win achievement is something special for the former player.
Lakers are a team that is one of the most talked about in the league and coaching them is pressure from all directions.
However, Redick has done well to manage the pressure and got the best out of all the players on the team.
Not only has he managed to get the best players on the team – LeBron James, Reaves and Doncic to play well, but Jordan Goodwin, Jarred Vanderbilt, Gabe Vincent and Dorian Finney-Smith have also flourished under him.
The Lakers have a great roster and look like a side to beat in the West, if that happens Redick could have one of the best rookie season for a coach in NBA history.
