With Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves out indefinitely, the Los Angeles Lakers can’t out-talent the Houston Rockets in their first-round playoff series.
But Lakers head coach JJ Redick believes his team can stay in games if it remains disciplined in two specific areas for 48 minutes: boxing out and limiting turnovers.
“Take care of the ball and box out,” Redick said, via The Athletic’s Dan Woike, of the two keys to the Lakers upsetting the Rockets in the playoffs.
Lakers Vs. Rockets Playoff Series
Redick and his coaching staff tried to implement the two keys in Monday and Tuesday’s practice sessions. Per Woike, Redick began Monday’s practice by addressing the team’s rebounding issues and working on ways to play without Doncic and Reaves, while avoiding overburdening LeBron James with excessive ball-handling duties.
“That’s what we’ve had to do for 82 games for the last two years, so it’s not any different,” Redick said of monitoring James’ workload.
“We’re mindful. I do think we have other options (other than) just him having the ball and going against a set defense every single possession. We’ll look to mix in different actions depending on their lineups and their coverages.”
On Tuesday, Redick and his staff worked on a drill to improve their rebounding — the Lakers ranked 27th in rebounds during the regular season.
Can LeBron James Carry Lakers?
“We gotta box out,” Redick said before facing a Rockets team that ranked No. 1 in rebounds and offensive boards during the regular season.
“We’re going to place an emphasis on every drill in practice. We started practice with boxing out today. You gotta put it in their minds. That’s literally the only thing we said about Houston today.
“Today was about us. Having a practice, getting sharp with our stuff.”
“Tomorrow, we’ll introduce (Rockets) personnel,” Redick revealed
“Thursday, we’ll do our scout, as we would. Friday will be a reinforcement of that scout. Saturday, we’ll be good to go. Only thing we did today was box out.”
In Doncic and Reaves’ absence, the Lakers require a 41-year-old LeBron James to turn back the clock and take them home. While it’s a tall order, Iman Shumpert believes his former teammate can still win close playoff games with his IQ and decision-making.
“If you have five minutes on the clock at the end of a playoff game, LeBron James can still make the right decisions against whoever,” Shumpert said on Monday.
Game 1 of the Lakers vs. Rockets series tips off Saturday at 5:30 p.m. local time. The Lakers enter the series as +550 underdogs, and Game 1 as a +170 underdog. Most analysts expect the Rockets to close out the Lakers within five games.
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