Despite the tough loss, JJ Redick is taking ownership of his choices
Without LeBron James, as well as Luka Doncic, the happy father of a second child, the day after their victory in TorontoThe Lakers didn’t have much weight against the Celtics. On their annual visit to their historic foes, JJ Redick’s players went down by 21 points after trailing by as many as 29 points in the first half. But the coach restrains the reaction of pride after the break.
“We’re one of the best mid-range shooting teams in the league, outside the circle, and we shot 5-of-13 in that zone. They outscored us by 3 points in the first half. We outscored them by one in the last three quarters, but unfortunately that’s not how basketball works with 21 points.” he explains. “I thought our response was good. We had a lot of moments where we could have broken through and we didn’t. That’s a credit to our guys.”
Along the way, Redick defends his game plan, which was supposed to give free rein to Jaylen Brown and Jordan Walsh. You have to make strong choices every night, and he takes them.
“Jaylen Brown is shooting a low percentage — about 30% — on threes off the dribble, and he’s hitting three straight in the third quarter. Jordan Walsh, we were ready to do with his threes, you’ve got to give something up, and he’s making four . . .” he notes. “We contested three of those goals. So you have to be willing to live with certain choices, and they made us pay for that. You can talk about the game plan all you want, but you have to know what you’re willing to accept. We’ve done that a lot of times, and it backfired on us tonight.”
2025-12-06 16:47:00
