After a tough 1-4 road trip, the Los Angeles Lakers returned home and made some key changes for their game against the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night. Head coach JJ Redick decided to start Cam Reddish in place of D’Angelo Russell.
The Lakers’ previous starting lineup had struggled defensively, and the team also lacked scoring off the bench. Redick felt that making this change would help the team get back on track. The change worked well in the game against the 76ers, as both Russell and Reddish played important roles in the Lakers’ victory.
Russell came off the bench and scored 18 points, shooting a strong 8-of-12. He had more opportunities to handle the ball and play a bigger role in the offense. Reddish, on the other hand, only took one shot in 28 minutes but had three points, five rebounds, two assists, a steal, and a block. His defense on Paul George was especially impressive.
After the win, Redick praised both Russell and Reddish for accepting and excelling in their new roles.
“I felt both those guys starred in the roles that they had tonight,” Redick said. “Cam took one shot in 27 minutes but had a huge impact on the game. Defensively, Paul George never got going at any point in the game.
In the first half, I know we had three smash screen assists coming out of set plays, and I think Cam had two of them. That’s sacrifice, and it’s unselfishness. For DLo, I think he starred in that role as well. Big time pop for us off the bench and a really efficient night for him. He just played really good basketball, but I thought across the board for our group it was a group win.
“We had a very professional approach to the game. We had a very professional approach to the gameplan. Some attention to detail stuff.
Our transition defense wasn’t perfect, but we had numerous possessions where the things that we wanted to see, and we emphasized in our meeting this afternoon, were either visible or you can hear it.
There was an auditory component to it in terms of the talk and communication. Obviously, LeBron, AD, and AR were phenomenal, but in terms of the challenge of playing hard and the effort, and execution, it was the entire group. I thought Jaxson Hayes had a great game.
“The stats won’t jump out at you, but he was awesome tonight. Gabe Vincent was solid again. For us, it was a group win, and I was just happy for the group to connect again. Sometimes you can go out on the road and things don’t go your way, and it’s not that we’ve splintered. We haven’t done that at all.
The group has been awesome, but sometimes you need to win. Sometimes you need to play well to feel that connection, and I thought the group had that tonight.”
Redick also shared that he and Russell have had open communication since Redick took the job in L.A. That’s why he wasn’t surprised when Russell was willing to come off the bench to help the team.
“Yeah, I’m not surprised that he approached the game in the way that he did and that he had the performance he had,” Redick said of Russell. “We’ve asked him to do things. He’s been accepting of the role.
He has talked with me all the time. He has a really strong desire to win, and he has a really strong desire to be coached. And our communication level from June 20 to today has been nothing but open, honest and transparent.
“I would assume that it will continue to be. Even just coming to our meeting today, just a professional, great attitude and all the things that you would want.
You see all the time in the league where guys can take that the wrong way, like it’s some sort of punishment and play the victim, and DLo didn’t do any of that. That’s part of the reason that he had the game that he had.”
Redick also made it clear that his starting lineup is flexible, so it remains to be seen if he will stick with the same group moving forward or make more changes in the future.
