The Los Angeles Lakers fell 132-116 to the Portland Trail Blazers Saturday night at Moda Center, with head coach JJ Redick highlighting both challenges and positives during his postgame press conference.
“Some good things, you know we did a couple things defensively to try out with Drew at the five and in a shock we played more zone tonight,” Redick said. “There was some really good stuff out of that.”
Redick emphasized the team’s competitive spirit despite key absences. “I thought our competitive spirit was really high and had some guys that really stepped up, you know, starting with Maxi and Drew. I thought those guys were great. Smart was a warrior. LeBron after slow start got it going and, you know, just Rui made some shots.”
He stressed maintaining consistency in coaching expectations regardless of injuries. “We don’t go into games thinking tonight’s going to be rough or we can’t win. Our relief level expectations, the standards, they don’t change. This has been our season. You get one guy healthy and another guy gets injured, you get one guy back, another guy gets injured, two guys go out. Tonight, you play without your two centers. So just been our season.”
On Marcus Smart’s injury, Redick offered clarity: “Yeah, just I believe knee or knee to quad. It was a collision…he was fine.” He also addressed Jake LaRavia’s elbow, saying, “He fell on it. He was fine.”
Redick acknowledged the difficulty of keeping the team level-headed through lopsided losses. “I think it’s normal to feel defeated in defeat if that makes sense. When you lose by 16…we still had one double-digit loss or one single-digit loss. The job of the coach and the leaders on the team is to remain level-headed through the natural highs and lows of a season.”
He also reflected on free throw discrepancies in the first quarter. “It’s more about the way the game is called. They got off to a bad start tonight and admitted that to me…there’s always going to be fouls. The inconsistency night-to-night within a game has been there for most of these crews.”
Despite the challenges, Redick highlighted positives for the Lakers. “There’s some good stuff to take away from tonight…competitive spirit, guys stepping up, and some effective defensive adjustments.”
The Lakers were without star guard Luka Doncic and center Deandre Ayton, while Marcus Smart left in the fourth quarter. LeBron James contributed 20 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
Portland led by 14 at halftime and stretched the advantage to 24 late in the fourth, improving to 20-22, while Los Angeles fell to 24-15. The Blazers visit Atlanta Monday, and the Lakers host Toronto Sunday.
