JJ Redick on rebounding from Saturday's embarrassing loss to the Bulls
It looked like the Los Angeles Lakers would cruise to a relatively easy win over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday when it was announced shortly before the opening tip that all of their rotation players would be available to play. LeBron James and Rui Hachimura finally returned after being out for multiple weeks, as did Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves, Dorian Finney-Smith and Jarred Vanderbilt, all of whom didn't play in Thursday's loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.
But the Lakers got inundated by a stampede and were embarrassed in a 146-115 rout on Saturday. Their defense was nearly non-existent, and they were, at times, their own worst enemy by committing 21 turnovers, which led to clusters of easy baskets for Chicago.
The team isn't fretting too much over what was arguably its worst loss of the season. Head coach JJ Redick resisted the urge to throw his players under the bus and instead talked about getting back into a groove before the end of the regular season.
Via ESPN:
"I think that's a good way to look at it. … ground zero," Redick said. "These next 12 games, you've got to refind your way. It's a perpetually flowing river that we've all of a sudden run into a beaver's [dam] … and we got to get ready to get the water flowing again."
Saturday's loss sent the Lakers back down to fourth place in the Western Conference with a 43-27 record, and they're now 2.5 games behind the second-place Houston Rockets. They will start a four-game road trip on Monday, and while their schedule will get a little easier than it was recently when they had six games in eight days, it won't be much easier.
It is time for them to grit their teeth, ramp things up and get into playoff mode now instead of waiting until the actual playoffs start.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: JJ Redick on rebounding from Saturday's embarrassing loss to the Bulls
| 2d 10:01 AM ET ago |
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