Column: Lakers find an identity, forged by a true leader in JJ Redick
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The Lakers have found their leader.
After Mike Brown and Mike D’Antonio, after Byron Scott and Luke Walton, after Frank Vogel and Darvin Ham, they have found their leader.
The revolving door to the coach’s office has finally stopped. JJ Redick is what the Lakers hoped he would be, and maybe even more.
The Lakers improved to 37-21 on Friday night with a 106-102 victory over the Clippers at Imaginary-Money-dot-com Arena, but this isn’t just about their record.
They’re in fourth place in the Western Conference and are positioned to move into second before the end of the regular season, but this isn’t just about their place in the standings.
This is about how they play. This is about culture.
Austin Reaves sustained a right calf injury during the first half of the Lakers’ defeat of the Clippers and is scheduled to undergo an MRI scan Saturday.
The players are buying what their rookie coach is selling, and, suddenly, the Lakers are playing better defense than any team in the NBA.
Who would have imagined, the Lakers holding their last six opponents to 102 or fewer points in the wake of parting ways with their two best defenders in the Luka Doncic trade.
“That’s just us,” LeBron James said. “I mean, it’s who we are at this point.”
Redick has jolted the Lakers the way Sean McVay did the Rams. Redick has made the Lakers a reflection of his personality the way Jim Harbaugh did with the Chargers.
Almost 60 games into Redick’s first season, the Lakers know who they are, and how often has that been said about them in the post-Phil Jackson years?
There was no guarantee Redick would be any different than Ham or Walton, the two other rookie coaches the Lakers hired in recent years.
Redick’s appointment invited skepticism, and rightly so. Redick wasn’t Dan Hurley, whom the Lakers wanted to hire. Redick had no coaching or management experience above the youth level. He was smug in a way that frauds often are, and he was stuck with basically the same roster that sank Ham. He looked like a Hail Mary.
Well, the Lakers’ prayers were answered, as the pretty-boy coach introduced a hard-nosed, switch-heavy style to a franchise associated with Showtime.
“Defensively is where we hang our hat,” James said. “It’s going to give us a chance to win every night.”
The victory over the Clippers marked a four-day stretch in which the Lakers played three games, each of them a victory. They went into their game against the Clippers without Rui Hachimura, who was sidelined with a knee problem, and emerged from the contest without Austin Reaves, who went down with a calf injury.
The win capped a 10-2 month for the Lakers.
“It’s a tough game to play and to win,” Doncic said. “I think we showed our character today.”
Reaves and Hachimura could be out of the starting lineup for a couple of weeks, perhaps longer, but the win demonstrated how they could survive without them.
“Our group, they competed, they found a way,” Redick said. “It was a rock fight out there.”
The Lakers have the league’s highest-rated defense over the last six weeks or so, and they once again suffocated their opponents on Friday night. Their bench was credited with nine of their 14 steals, including four by Gabe Vincent and three by Jordan Goodwin, who is on a two-way contract.
“It takes a while for a group to develop an identity, takes a while for a group to develop a collective mentality,” Redick said. “There’s been a lot of things that have happened this season. I felt like the group, our ecosystem, was created, and it’s been sustained since mid-January.”
He was particularly pleased with how his players continued to stick with the game plan, which was to slow down James Harden and Kawhi Leonard. Guard Kris Dunn burned them for 14 points in the first half, but the Lakers didn’t waver. Dunn, who made six of seven shots before halftime, eventually slowed down. Harden finished with 18 points on five-of-22 shooting, including one of 10 on threes.
“I like who we are as a team right now,” Redick said.
He’s not alone.
Late in the third quarter, one particular play by the Lakers drew a standing ovation, and it wasn’t a dunk by James or a three by Doncic.
On the sequence in question, Vanderbilt poked the ball away from Harden and threw himself on the court to recover it.
This is the latest incarnation of Lakers basketball. This is JJ Redick basketball, and it will be around for the foreseeable future.
Go beyond the scoreboard
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