MIAMI — JJ Redick didn’t want to go there on Wednesday night.
Coming off the Lakers’ 41-point road loss to the Miami Heat, their worst loss of the season and their second-worst loss of the LeBron James-Anthony Davis era behind only a 44-point defeat to the Philadelphia 76ers on Nov. 27, 2023, the first-year Lakers coach wanted to make sure it was known that he wasn’t evading responsibility for his team’s “embarrassing” performance.
“There has to be some ownership on the court and I’ll take all the ownership in the world,” Redick said. “This is my team, I lead it and I’m embarrassed. But I can’t physically get us organized. I can’t physically be into the basketball. I can’t physically talk and call out reds [defensive switching calls] and physically call out coverages.”
He added: “I’m not blaming players. I own this.”
But when it came time for the players to speak, accountability was taken, specifically from the Lakers’ stars.
The Lakers, who enter Friday’s trip-ending game against the Atlanta Hawks having lost six of their last eight games, have been defeated by at least 25 points in four of those losses:
• Nov: 23: 127-102 home loss to the Denver Nuggets;
• Nov. 26: 127-100 road loss to the Phoenix Suns;
• Monday: 109-80 road loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves;
• Wednesday: 134-93 road loss to the Heat.
“We’ve been preaching it since July,” James responded when asked if players understand the game plans they’re being asked to execute. “I mean, I wasn’t there in July. I was preaching some other stuff with Team USA, but it’s been preached since July. So there should be an understanding.”
James added: “It’s not on the coaches, it’s definitely on us, for sure.”
Davis is coming off his worst offensive performances of the season.
After being held to a season-low 12 points against the Timberwolves, Davis was even less effective against the Heat, with eight points on 3-of-14 shooting, seven rebounds and five assists.
“I’m not playing well,” Davis said. “It’s kind of tough on our team. Defensively, a lot of breakdowns. And it’s on us. It’s on us players, to be honest. We’re getting the schemes. The schemes are on point. But we just gotta go out and do it and execute ’em. I just gotta step up for the team.”
The Lakers’ recent struggles, which dropped them to 12-10 on the season after starting 3-0 and 10-4, have seen them struggle on both ends of the court.
Their once-elite offense has struggled over the last two weeks.
The Lakers were No. 4 in offensive rating (points scored per 100 possessions) at 118.3 points on Nov. 21. That number has fallen to 113 (No. 13) after having the league’s third-worst offensive output in their last seven games.
Their defense appeared to be making strides but took a significant step back against the Heat, who tied a franchise record with 24 3-pointers against the Lakers.
“We’re having trouble right now on both ends with like base-level game plan stuff,” Redick said. “It’s odd. It’s very odd. You can’t really make adjustments if you can’t execute the base-level coverage.”
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The biggest challenge, even more than the on-court one that the surging Hawks (five-game win streak) will present is preventing the recent adversity from splintering the locker room, with Redick saying on Wednesday that “there’s not a sense from me that we’re together.”
James was listed as questionable for Friday because of left foot soreness. Guard Austin Reaves is set to miss his fourth consecutive game with a bruised left pelvis.
“We have good guys, we have guys that want to win and we have guys that want to play the right way,” Redick said. “Figuring out how to do that together. That’s the challenge for almost any team. And when you can do it, we’ve done it. We’ve shown we can do it. You just want to get back to that. And we will.”
LAKERS AT HAWKS
When: Friday, 4:30 p.m.
Where: State Farm Arena, Atlanta
TV/radio: Spectrum SportsNet/710 AM