Recently, the Los Angeles Lakers had a bit of a tumultuous moment with a Christmas Day blowout loss to the Houston Rockets at home, after which JJ Redick put the team on blast for their perceived lack of effort and promised a difficult practice over the weekend. Despite their solid record of 19-10, the Lakers' lack of viable two-way players has started to become an issue too big to ignore in recent weeks.
After Saturday's practice, Redick took a bit more accountability than he did in the aftermath of the Rockets loss.
“Myself, I'm always going to look in the mirror first,” said Redick, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “And I think it's easy as a player, as a coach to say, ‘It's this guy's fault,' or, ‘We're not doing this because X, Y, and Z.'”
“The truth is uncomfortable and so you have to put everything out there, that's all it is,” he added.
McMenamin also reported that both LeBron James and Marcus Smart declined to speak to the media after the practice.
The Lakers also recently got some unfortunate news when it was revealed that Austin Reaves, who has been enjoying an All-Star caliber season so far this year, will be out of the lineup for the next four weeks due to an injury.
Overall, the Lakers are still in a good spot, sitting nine games over the .500 mark, but hard practices and team meetings will only go so far in addressing the real issue, which is the fact that Los Angeles does not have many (any?) players who can hold their own on both offense and defense.
James fit that bill at one point in his career, but he doesn't provide much in the way of defensive prowess on the cusp of his 41st birthday.
In any case, the Lakers will next take the floor on Sunday night vs the Utah Jazz.
