The Los Angeles Lakers suffered a shock defeat at the hands of the Chicago Bulls on Saturday, March 22. JJ Redick’s team allowed Chicago to drop 146 points in regulation despite LeBron James making his return to the rotation.
During his postgame news conference, Redick ripped his team’s defensive approach. The rookie head coach stated it was the worst defensive performance he’d seen from the Lakers for the entire season.
“That was the worst our defense has looked, frankly, maybe all year,” Redick said. “But certainly in the last three months…Honestly, I thought when we came out, we looked flat. We felt flat. We moved flat. They just moved better than us all night. … And it just didn’t feel like our group overall really had like juice tonight, if that makes sense.”
Since acquiring Luka Doncic ahead of the Feb. 6 trade deadline, Redick had masterminded the Lakers into becoming one of the best defensive teams in the NBA. However, an impressive Bulls team found countless ways to generate high-level offense throughout the night.
Josh Giddey was a particular threat to the Lakers, ending the night with 15 points, 17 assists and 10 rebounds.
LeBron James Issues Rallying Cry to Lakers
During his own postgame news conference, James issued a rallying cry to his teammates. The aging superstar noted how the Lakers have 12 games games left in the regular-season, and that they control whether or not they will avoid the play-in tournament.
“We didn’t play good defense,” James said. “We gave ’em a little bit of everything. S—, we gave ’em points in the paint. We gave ’em fast-break points and we gave ’em 3s. We can’t give everything, for sure…We got 12 games to position ourselves in the postseason. We pretty much can control our own destiny if we win ballgames and not have to be in the Play-In.”
The Lakers currently sit fourth in the Western Conference, three games ahead of the LA Clippers, who are in seventh. The West is jam-packed full of high-level teams, with very little margin for error. James will undoubtedly want the Lakers to avoid the play-in tournament, especially as it would add additional wear and tear onto his body.
Lakers Offseason Priorities Revealed
While the season is still well underway, the Lakers front office will already have an eye on the summer. Rob Pelinka has a growing inbox of tasks he must set out to achieve. According to The Athletic’s Jovan Buha, the Pelinka’s priorities will be as follows:
“I think that the priorities are going to be trying to get Luka to sign the extension, trying to get Austin [Reaves] to sign an extension, which I don’t think he will sign,” Buha said. “Figuring out the LeBron [James] situation, figuring out DFS [Dorian Finney-Smith]… I think it’s it’s more so like retaining some of the internal key pieces that are going to be free agents or extension eligible and then also seeing the trade market what you can get.”
Those priorities could shift depending on how successful the Lakers are during the postseason. However, losses like the one on Saturday will only serve to paint a clearer picture of the task at hand, and how to position the Lakers to be a contending team for years to come.
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