The Los Angeles Lakers were blown out 126-102 by the San Antonio Spurs at Crypto.com Arena on Monday in their first game after a five-day break. It was a third straight loss for the Lakers and in his postgame press conference, head coach JJ Redick explained what went wrong.
"You can point to the 13 points in the fourth quarter but it was just we gave up 73 points in the second half, had nine turnovers in both halves," Redick said. "Frankly, we should have had 70 in the first half offensively and just couldn't keep the ball in front of us."
Redick was then asked about the defensive issues for the Lakers in this loss and spoke at length about them.
"So, Wemby (Victor Wembanyama) being on the court, you have to kind of decide how you want to play coverage," Redick stated. "... If he's away from the basket and you're in coverage, let's say in theory the five would be away from the rim. If you Red and he rolls, the five is away from the rim.
"The point of attack was not good tonight and I'll have to look at the film," Redick said. “I turned to Ty (Abbott), who had the scout today, and I just was like, 'Man, feels like there's no one in the paint for us.' ... That's what I saw in real-time. Obviously, I'll have to look at the tape, but everything was at the rim — 66 points in the paint. That’s tough."
The Spurs had a massive 66-40 edge over the Lakers in points in the paint and that's not something that has happened all that often this season. They have generally lost that battle, averaging 46.2 points in the paint per game in 2024-25 while allowing 48, but managed to dominate here.
The Spurs also benefited from the Lakers being careless with the ball. The hosts had 19 turnovers and it led to 25 points for the visitors. When you're defending as badly as the Lakers were here, the last thing you want to do is give up even more easy baskets and that's what they ended up doing here.
What has to be so frustrating for Redick is that the Lakers started this game fairly well. They were up by as many as 11 points in the first half and had an 84-74 lead deep into the third quarter.
The Lakers seemed to be in control at the time but then fell apart. They allowed the Spurs to go on a quick 10-0 run, primarily by turning the ball over on multiple occasions. The game was stunningly tied at 89 entering the fourth and it was all San Antonio after that.
The Spurs won the fourth quarter 37-13 as the Lakers struggled massively on both ends of the floor. They couldn't buy a basket and failed to slow down the opposition as well.
The Spurs shot 59.6% from the field in the second half and were at 53.3% for the whole game. They were just the latest team to take advantage of the Lakers' porous defense and Redick needs to find a solution to this problem.
The Lakers dropped to 20-17 on the season with this loss and are now seventh in the West. They take on the Miami Heat next at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday at 10 PM ET and it will be interesting to see how they respond to this latest defeat.
