WASHINGTON — The Lakers’ ongoing road trip has provided Coach JJ Redick an opportunity to do something he normally wouldn’t be able to do.
Throughout the course of the annual prolonged Grammy trip, which started with a Jan. 25 victory over the Golden State Warriors, Redick and some members of his coaching and performance staff have grown out their mustaches.
“Starts with the fact that my wife doesn’t allow me to have a mustache,” Redick said ahead of his team’s 134-96 blowout victory over the league-worst Washington Wizards. “So this was just an opportunity on the Grammys trip to grow the mustache out.
“I let the staff know and it was optional. There was no requirement. We had, I would say, pretty good participation. You guys probably can’t tell, but Scotty Brooks is participating. Very kind of him. Greg St. Jean, same thing, can’t probably tell, but he’s participating as well. Ty Abbott and [head video coordinator Michael Wexler] get the award for best mustache.”
The feedback from home has been what Redick expected.
“Not positive,” he responded when asked what his wife, Chelsea, had to say about the mustache.
Redick added: “It will be off the second we finish the game in New York.”
Just like the trip provided Redick and his staff the perfect opportunity to grow out their facial hair, the timing of their matchup against the Wizards couldn’t have been better.
The Lakers (27-19) were coming off not only a blowout loss to the short-handed Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday to end their winning streak at four games, but they found out Wednesday they would be without All-Star big man Anthony Davis for at least one week because of a strained abdominal muscle.
Redick said ahead of the victory over the Wizards that Davis will “hopefully” return next week.
The Wizards, who have the league’s worst record, were the perfect team for the Lakers, who have won seven of their last nine games, to play so the team’s spirit and morale stayed at a high level.
“I asked the guys to play with an edge – they did that,” Redick said. “We were the instigators. Did not intend for some of that edge to be taken out on the officials by a couple of our guys. I like that we were angry. We played angry. Overall, just execution was great.”
And the Lakers will need everything they showed Thursday in abundance this weekend to close out the non-Southern California portion of their trip on a high note.
The Lakers will play the New York Knicks in a prime-time matchup on Saturday at Madison Square Garden before playing the Clippers on Tuesday at Intuit Dome to end the trip.
The Knicks (32-16) have the third-best record in the Eastern Conference.
“That’s always a game that you look forward to, playing in the Garden, playing in the Mecca against the New York Knicks,” Lakers guard Max Christie said. “And they’re really good this year, too.”
The Knicks are led by All-Star starters Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony-Towns, the latter of whom New York acquired in a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves during the offseason and has helped propelled the Knicks to the league’s second-best offensive rating.
“KAT, that addition for them, causes a lot of problems for opposing defenses,” Christie said. “They’re picking and popping and obviously Jalen is an elite scorer, an All-Star this year. They got Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart. They got a lot of guys who can really play so it’s going to be a good defensive challenge for us and we’re looking forward to any challenge that we can take on.”
LAKERS AT KNICKS
When: Saturday, 5:30 p.m. PT
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York
TV/radio: KABC (Ch. 7)/710 AM