Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick showered praise on veteran LeBron James after a 131-114 loss against the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday. James top-scored with 39 points but none of the other players could even breach the 20-point mark.
“I think LeBron was fantastic tonight,” Redick said after James scored a season-high 39 points on 15-for-24 shooting with the Lakers missing two starters in Anthony Davis (left heel contusion) and Rui Hachimura (illness). “Biggest thing that stood out. … He played hard. Almost 40 years old and played the hardest on our team. It says a lot about him.”
Redick also revealed his decision to limit second-half time to just six minutes for D’Angelo Russell.
“Just level of compete, attention to detail, some of the things we’ve talked with him about for a couple of weeks,” Redick said when asked why he limited Russell’s role in Memphis. “And at times, he’s been really good with that stuff. And other times, it’s just reverting back to certain habits. But it wasn’t like a punishment. It just felt for us to have a chance to win this game, that was the route we wanted to take.”
Russell scored 12 points on 4-for-12 shooting (2-for-9 from 3) and thus struggled to bring his A-game to the court.
As the Lakers were missing Anthony Davis and Rui Hachimura, James said they had to compete harder.
“At the end of the day, especially when you lose bodies, you got to compete,” said James. “You got to compete even harder. You got to be out there giving it everything that you got and on both ends. I think there were times that we did that, but the majority of the time, I don’t think we sustained energy and effort.”
James said they need to come up with an improved performance, especially in defense.
“We got to compete, and we got to defend,” James said. “We gave up 50% shooting, and they shot the 3 ball well. They got into the paint. They got offensive rebounds. They got second-chance points. And they had some transition points, as well.
“So, it wasn’t too much of the offense, even though we didn’t shoot the ball well. We got to do a better job of that. But defense, we got to hang our hat on that too.”
The Lakers will next take on the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday.
