The Los Angeles Lakers returned from the All-Star break with encouraging injury news and a clear directive for the final stretch of the regular season.
Head coach JJ Redick said Thursday that, as of late in the afternoon, the group is trending toward full availability ahead of Friday’s matchup with the LA Clippers.
“Austin won’t have a minutes restriction, and as of, you know, 35 to 45 seconds ago, looks like we’ll have everybody available tomorrow,” Redick said. “You never know.”
That update includes Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves, who have both dealt with recent health concerns.
Redick emphasized that health remains the variable no team can fully manage.
“There’s only so much you can control. I mean, you know, as a coach, you have zero control on that,” he said. “As a player, you know, what you do to prepare and what you do to recover can give you some level of control. But ultimately, the basketball gods in the game are going to dictate health.”
Los Angeles enters the final 28 games at 33-21, fifth in the Western Conference.
The head coach framed the upcoming stretch as decisive.
“I think my messaging this morning to the players was that this is going to be a sprint these last 28 games,” Redick said. “Starting tomorrow, we won’t have more than a day between games until the end of March.”
He added: “We’ve got an opportunity to, I think, play our best basketball after the All-Star break.”
Redick pointed to defensive progress tied to increased zone usage.
“Defensively, you know, since we went to zone the last 14 games, we’ve been much better when we have been in our zone—started possessions in our zone,” he said. “We’ve been the number one half-court defense.”
He also cited improved transition defense.
“Our transition possessions allowed are going down,” Redick said. “I think a lot of that has to do with sprinting back into our zone.”
Offensively, the focus has been paint pressure and connectivity.
“We’ve had some of our highest paint touch rate games, and we’ve proven that when we touch the paint, we’re elite,” he said. “When we pass the ball and we trust each other, and we generate not just potential assists but assists and connect that way, that we win basketball games.”
Redick dismissed the idea that the scheme is overly complex.
“Last year our man was zone, and this year our zone is man,” he said. “So it’s not incredibly complicated.”
With Doncic averaging 32.8 points and 8.6 assists and Reaves adding 25.4 points per game, full health would stabilize rotations.
Redick stressed adaptability will determine playoff viability.
“With this group, it’s not going to be one thing,” he said. “We’ve got to continue to be adaptable and search for the right answer in the middle of the game.”
