His offense struggling, JJ Redick is already thinking about LeBron James…

The Warriors collective made a much better impression than the Lakers. In addition to victorySteve Kerr’s players produced some good moves, with movement, circulation and good passing. Los Angeles relied more on Luka Doncic, the author of 43 points, in the absence of LeBron James, who was on the mind of his coach.

“It’s hard to forget LeBron”, admits JJ Redick. “The reality is that we have to make our group work and sometimes we can remember that he’s going to come back at some point. That’s great, but you have to stay focused. I’ll be honest: for a moment, in the first period, for a couple of possessions, when we weren’t scoring against a zone defense, I thought it would be great to have LeBron play in the high position.”

But we know that the Lakers will have to be without “LBJ” at least until the beginning of November. And we’ll have to do better because the 19 turnovers in this loss to Golden State carry a lot of weight. The two worst in this area? Austin Reaves and Deandre Ayton, who combined for nine turnovers.

“I realized today that I’m probably a confusing pivot”concedes the pivot, 10 points, but a few good balls to take advantage of, failing to offer properly near the circle. “Sometimes it’s hard for my teammates. Sometimes I can’t finish in the circle so I stay around the free throw line to be available.”

A simple lack of automation?

As for the guard, he certainly scored 26 points, but he lost five balls and committed five fouls in the third quarter. To support Luka Doncic and forget LeBron James, he will have to become more efficient.

“We didn’t have much time together to work with the whole group”Austin Reeves excuses himself. “We are still not complete, but we will continue to work, to learn to play with each other. I lost five balls, but there was a misunderstanding with some where to send the ball to Ayton. The reading was not bad, it was a pass that was not in the right moment. We have to learn, and that happens at work.”

The automatics are missing, that’s for sure, and the absence of LeBron James doesn’t help, that’s also obvious. But for JJ Redick, it’s also a confirmation of last season’s limits.

“The trend that is emerging is that we continue to be a bad team in the third quarter. That was the case last year as well as in the preseason.” laments the Lakers coach. “What can we do at halftime to get guys ready to play? They weren’t at the start of the second half.”