Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick didn’t hold back in candidly expressing his frustration over the team’s humiliating 41-point defeat against the Miami Heat.
Speaking to the media in the aftermath of their 134-93 brutal road loss, the rookie mentor was visibly dejected on the Lakers‘ continuing downslide which saw another major bump on Wednesday night.
“Has to be some ownership,” Redick said. “You can splinter, and it’s easy to not want the ownership, particularly when it’s embarrassing.
“I’m embarrassed. We’re all embarrassed. It’s not a game that I thought we had the right fight, the right professionalism.”
From the opening tip up until the final buzzer, the Lakers were literally lifeless on both ends of the floor. As a result, they paid the price by enduring the worst loss of their season into the hands of the Heat.
After a rough stretch in the past six games, LeBron James managed to brush off his personal slump with 29 points in 12-of-28 shooting, but he couldn’t save his reeling group from being torched by the red-hot Heat that tied their franchise regular season record for most made three-pointers (24-of-37) which was led by Tyler Herro’s 31 game-high markers.
Anthony Davis shouldered the burden of responsibility in Los Angeles’ newest forgettable loss against the Heat. Davis was completely disappointing with a horrible 8 lowly points in 3-of-14 shooting — much even worse to the 12-point output he tallied in their Monday loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“I personally just think it starts with me,” Davis said. “If I play better, then guys play better. I definitely take accountability, especially the last couple of games. Just not being there for the team on the offensive end.”
In a major turn of events, the Lakers have peculiarly crumbled from a sharp decline ever since their promising 10-4 season beginnings. They now have lost their past six games by a massive average of 21.8 points.
Per Jovan Buha of The Athletic, Redick is planning to individually engage with the coaching staff, his players (as a group), and certain players in hopes of recovering the team from the downward progress.
“There has to be some ownership on the court, and I’ll take all the ownership in the world,” Redick said. “This is my team and I lead it and I’m embarrassed. But I can’t physically get us organized. I can’t physically be into the basketball. I can’t physically talk and call out [switches] and physically call out coverages. … And by the way, I’m not blaming players. It’s not.
“I own this, but going to need some ownership on the court as well. … There’s not a sense from me that we’re together right now.”
Scrambling for answers, the Lakers will attempt to take a desperate bounce back and return to the win column on Friday against the Atlanta Hawks.
Related Posts
