The Los Angeles Lakers were able to pick up their first win of the NBA playoffs with the 94-85 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 2. The Lakers had complete control of the game after the first couple of minutes and never lost the lead.
However, it wasn’t the prettiest win. The team only managed to score 94 points and made 20.7% of their 3-point attempts.
The Lakers got very sloppy in the third quarter, and it made head coach JJ Redick irate. He called a timeout, charged onto the court and started cursing at his players.
“Jesus (expletive) Christ, the (expletive) are you guys doing? Come on!” cameras caught Redick yelling.
Not many head coaches yell at their players like this these days, but Redick is a recent former player who is known not to bite his tongue.
According to LeBron James, the team didn’t take it personally.
“I thought we responded well from the timeout,” James told reporters after the game. “We know JJ is going to spaz out from time to time. That’s JJ. At this point, for us, obviously, we need to listen to the message and not how he’s delivering it. For me, my high school coach my freshman year was kinda the same way. He would spaz out on us. You have to be able to understand it’s not about how he’s saying it, it’s about what he’s saying. I thought we responded after that.”
Redick Explains His Side
This is Redick’s first year as a head coach, and this is his first playoff run. He’s been very successful with what he’s been doing this season and isn’t looking to change.
He didn’t see anything wrong with how he attacked that timeout in the third quarter.
“(That’s) not frustration, but just coaching,” Redick said. “As a coach, you can see it coming, and the other side of that is on the horizon and is building, and just wanted to make sure everybody was on the same page.
“I’ve done that in a game a handful of times, in six preseason games, 82 regular-season (games) … (Out of) 90 games, I’ve done it a handful of times. It’s not something that I’d want to do. It’s something I’m more than comfortable doing. But I think tonight it was just more about getting that urgency button switched back on.”
The Lakers ended up winning, so perhaps there’s a method to his madness.
Lakers Offense Needs to Wake Up
The Lakers now have back-to-back games where they didn’t score more than 95 points. The defense was very good in Game 2, but the offense was cold again.
Luka Doncic was the only player to score more than 21 points in Games 1 and 2. The Lakers proved that they can still win with defense, but that’s not going to be enough to win a championship.
The good news is that the Lakers’ offense isn’t going to be this bad for the entire series. Once James and Austin Reaves get back into a rhythm, it’s going to be difficult to beat this Lakers team.
