JJ Redick said on May 9 that the Los Angeles Lakers need to revisit their approach to turnovers and rebounding as they prepare for Game 3 of their playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Lakers trail the Thunder 2-0 in the series despite strong performances in both games.
Redick addressed issues that have impacted the team’s performance, specifically turnovers and allowing second-chance points. “Well, I talked about it a little bit yesterday. They were plus-nine in the non-Shai minutes and then in the second half, we just got blitzed. 32-14, seven turnovers, they shot 14 free throws during that stretch. We’ll look at lineups, we’ll look at everything to try to figure out how we can be better in those minutes,” Redick said.
Turnovers have been a consistent problem for the Lakers so far this series, with a total of 39 over two games. Redick emphasized that returning to fundamentals seen earlier in the playoffs could help address these issues: “We’re starting to see some trends here and we probably need to go back to the two keys we had against Houston, which was take care of the ball and box out,” he said. “Because it’s not a high volume, but they’ve killed us in two games. Every time they’ve gotten an offensive rebound, they’ve scored.”
Redick also commented on officiating after Game 2: “I sarcastically said the other day they were the most disruptive team without fouling,” he said about Oklahoma City. “They have a few guys that foul on every possession, and all of the good defenses do… There was a stretch where like four straight possessions our guys got absolutely clobbered… You gotta be able to just call it if they foul. And they do foul.”
The Lakers return home for Games 3 and 4 at Crypto.com Arena as they seek ways to adjust their strategy against what Redick described as tough opposition.