The Los Angeles Lakers watched LeBron James and Bronny James get a tribute video from the Cleveland Cavaliers on Halloween Eve. JJ Redick then watched a horror show performance. The squad was a sleepwalking mode throughout a 134-100 loss in the James family's hometown. Redick raised some alarms with a stern warning to the locker room after failing to keep up with Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell's relentless attack.
The Lakers were down 42-23 after the first-quarter horn sounded. Redick was looking in the mirror for answers, using a very serious, somber tone in the postgame press conference.
“I think we kind of got punched in the mouth a little bit,” Redick explained. “When you play good teams, you cannot afford a lot of mistakes. We made a lot of mistakes. Simple stuff sometimes like low-man rotations, not executing our switches early. They did a lot of things that forced us into those mistakes but when you play a good basketball team you cannot make those mistakes.”
"When you play a good basketball team, you can't make that many mistakes." JJ Redick on tonight's loss. pic.twitter.com/NX3fc5Jp7o
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) October 31, 2024
Cleveland did not pull away really, winning the next three quarters by six points, but also never game up the double-digit cushion. Redick did not expect a comeback either, not after looking at the advanced stats.
“We got down early and could not recover. Frankly, you get down early with turnovers…,” Redick lamented. “They had 17 more scoring opportunities, generated 13 more threes, and beat us at +33 in the three-point battle. It was the lowest crash rate of the season. We had the highest LIMBO rating of the season. That's not a winnable game. If you turn the ball over 20-plus times, you're not winning those games. That's just math.”
JJ Redick's Lakers let LeBron James down
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It was a tough night for the Lakers as a team. Bronny James scoring his first Lakers points in Cleveland was about the only silver lining to take back to the airport. Redick credited the Cavaliers for just having more eye-test effort. Those advanced stats were just extra data to back up a public warning to the Lakers.
“(The Cavaliers) are a really good basketball team. They spread you out and have some guys with some pop with Garland, Mitchell, and LaVert,” Redick stated. “Ty Jerome played great. It's good to see him healthy but we are going to have to watch this film. Garland and Mitchell off the dribble gave us a lot of problems. ”
The Lakers had 21 turnovers which led to 31 points for the Cavaliers. Every night will be a horror show if that trend continues. Thankfully, the next three road games for Redick and James come against the Toronto Raptors (1-4), Detroit Pistons (1-4), and Memphis Grizzlies (2-3).
