Lakers found their chief.
After Mike Brown and Mike d’Antonio, after Byron Scott and Luke Walton, after Frank Vogel and Darvin Ham, they found their chef.
The rotating door of the coach’s office finally stopped. JJ Redick This is what the Lakers hoped it would be, and maybe even more.
Lakers improved at 37-21 Friday evening with a 106-102 Victory on The mowers At Imaginary-Money-Dot-Com Arena, but it is not only their record.
They are in fourth place in the Western Conference and are positioned to go secondly before the end of the regular season, but it is not only their place in the classification.
This is the way they play. This is culture.
Find out more: Lakers hold the mowers after Austin Reaves hurts the calf
The players buy what their recruit coach sells and suddenly the Lakers play a better defense than any NBA team.
Who would have imagined, the Lakers holding their last six opponents at 102 points or less in the wake of the separation of their two best defenders in the Trade Luka Doncic.
“It’s just us,” LeBron James said. “I mean, who we are at this stage.”
Redick rocked the Lakers like Sean Mcvay made the Rams. Redick made Lakers the reflection of his personality as Jim Harbaugh did with the charge.
Nearly 60 games in the first season of Redick, the Lakers know who they are and how often it has been said about them in the post-phils of Jackson?
There was no guarantee that Redick would be different from Ham or Walton, the other two recruit coaches that Lakers have hired in recent years.
Redick’s appointment invited skepticism, and rightly so. Redick was not Dan Hurley, whom the Lakers wanted to hire. Redick had no coaching or management experience above the level of young people. It was enough in a way that the frauds are often, and it was stuck with essentially the same list as the ham poured. He looked like a Mary’s hail.
Well, the prayers of the Lakers have been granted, because the Joli-Garçon coach introduced a hard-nose style with a franchise associated with Showtime.
“Defensively is the place where we hang our hat,” said James. “It will give us a chance to win every night.”
The victory over the Clippers scored a four -day section in which the Lakers played three games, each of them a victory. They entered their match against the clippers without Rui Hachimura, who was sidelined with a knee problem, and came out of the competition without Austin Reaves, which fell with a calf injury.
The victory capped 10-2 months for the Lakers.
“It’s a difficult game to play and win,” said Donic. “I think we have shown our character today.”
Reaves and Hachimura could be out of the starting range for a few weeks, perhaps longer, but the victory demonstrated how they could survive without them.
“Our group, they competed, they found a means,” said Redick. “It was a rock fight there.”
The Lakers are the best rated defense of the league in the past six weeks, and they once stifled their opponents on Friday evening. Their bench was credited with nine of their 14 interceptions, including four by Gabe Vincent and three by Jordan Goodwin, who is on a double -direction contract.
“It takes a certain time to a group to develop an identity, takes some time for a group to develop a collective mentality,” said Redick. “There have been many things that happened this season. I had the impression that the group, our ecosystem, was created and has been maintained since mid-January. »»
He was particularly satisfied with how his players continued to stick to the match plan, who was to slow James Harden and Kawhi Leonard. Goalkeeper Kris Dunn burned them for 14 points in the first half, but the Lakers did not hesitate. Dunn, who made six of the seven shots before half-time, finally slowed down. Harden finished with 18 points out of five on 22 shots, including one of the 10 out of three.
“I like who we are as a team right now,” said Redick.
He is not alone.
At the end of the third quarter, a particular piece of the Lakers pulled a standing ovation, and it was not a Dunk of James or a three of Doncic.
On the sequence in question, Vanderbilt has moved Harden’s ball away and threw himself on the ground to recover it.
This is the last incarnation of Lakers Basketball. It’s JJ Redick Basketball, and it will be there in the predictable future.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
