JJ Redick is not someone who handles losses well. He’s already admitted to spending nights alone in his dark basement when the Lakers lose.
Saturday, then, probably didn’t do wonders for his mental health.
The Lakers looked lackadaisical from the start against the Hawks and a fiesty, undermanned Atlanta team put them to the blade. LA offered up the ball via turnover — Atlanta finished with 36 points on 19 Lakers turnovers — more than they offered a resistance in the game, falling behind by as many as 30 in the second half as they lost handily.
Shockingly, Redick did not handle that well.
Postgame, the sometimes-chatty Redick had a presser that, from first question to final words, lasted just 82 seconds.
There were plenty of great moments packed into that 1:22, but nothing tops the ending.
Redick: “I realized [we would lose] in the first two minutes of the game”
Reporter: “What’d you see?”
Redick: “Nothing.”
[End scene]
Christopher Nolan couldn’t put together a script better than that one.
I also appreciated the question of whether the team would watch the film or just figuratively burn it and move on — a completely fair question — being met with a completely deadpan “We’re going to watch it.”
Yeah, that’s not going to be a fun film session on Sunday.
Look, these games happen. The Lakers should know. They literally won a not-too-dissimilar game in Portland last week. It’s the modern NBA. When you get caught on a bad night and a team is on fire, those games get out of hand in a hurry and that was the case on Saturday for Redick and the Lakers.
So learn from it, watch the tape and make sure that Redick doesn’t have an 82-second press conference again.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on BlueSky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
