Lakers News: JJ Redick Shoulders Blame for Confusing Last-Second Loss to Suns

L.A.'s first-year head coach pins the blame for his first regular season defeat on one person.

Oct 28, 2024; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick talks to his team during the half of the game against the Phoenix Suns at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

First-year Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick pins the blame for his first regular season defeat, a 109-105 road loss to the Phoenix Suns, on one person: JJ Redick.

As he said in his postgame presser, the former 15-year sharpshooting guard believes that he deserves the lion's share of criticism for how he handled two particular sticking points in the defeat to Kevin Durant and co.: an ice-cold second quarter scoring drought and a defensive scheme against a red-hot Durant in the contest's second half.

JJ on tonight's loss- "If there's one thing to nitpick, it's probably me. I probably should've gone to the fire a possession or two earlier against KD." pic.twitter.com/waPJbpX9Uh

— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) October 29, 2024

"I said we wanted to be a process team, I liked our process tonight," Redick allowed. "I liked our level of competition... on the defensive end. They put you in a lot of tough spots, and they have some elite individual shotmakers. I have to go watch it, but it felt like, in some ways, we lost to Kevin Durant and Devin Booker's ability to make tough twos. I thought our execution down the stretch was phenomenal."

“If there’s one thing to nitpick, it’s probably me," Redick continued. "I probably should've gone to the fire [a blitz] a possession or two earlier against KD, but I like that group that we had out there defensively. I trust those guys. And then the other one thing I would say is we should never have a 14-point quarter."

After getting off to a 34-25 first quarter edge, Los Angeles let Phoenix back into the bout. The Suns outscored L.A. 25-14 in that second frame, and managed to weather the storm of a 35-26 Lakers third quarter with a strong fourth period finish.

"So that's on me as well," Redick conceded. "Part of that is me, I've gotta make sure we're running good offense... For us to be a high-level offense, we've gotta move bodies and we've gotta move the ball."

Booker led all scorers with 33 points on 11-of-23 shooting from the floor (3-of-8 from long range) and 8-of-8 shooting from the foul line, plus three rebounds, two assists, and one steal. Durant notched 30 points on 11-of-20 shooting from the floor (2-of-6 from beyond the 3-point line) and 6-of-7 shooting from the charity stripe, while pulling down eight boards, blocking four shots and dishing out four dimes. Three Lakers — center Anthony Davis, shooting guard Austin Reaves and combo forward Rui Hachimura — finished with 20 or more points, though an ailing LeBron James had yet another lackluster night, finishing with 11 points on 3-of-14 shooting from the field.

Late in the game, the Lakers trailed by just three points with 41 seconds remaining in the contest. Devin Booker snagged the rebound. Some critical Anthony Davis defense inside led to a panicked 3-point chuck from Royce O'Neale. Davis secured the rebound. After a timeout, LeBron James drew a Kevin Durant foul with six seconds remaining. James made one free throw and then deliberately missed his second so that L.A. could nab the offensive rebound and tie the bout with a putback. Instead, Suns wing Bradley Beal grabbed the board and sealed the W.

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