Momentum was brewing for JJ Redick and the Los Angeles Lakers early in the season as they went into their road trip winners of five straight and win a 7-2 record.
They began the trip with a matchup against the Atlanta Hawks, who were missing Trae Young, Jalen Johnson, Kristaps Porzingis, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and others. On paper, it appeared to be a good opportunity for the Lakers to pick up a sixth straight win.
That is not how it played out, however, as Atlanta blitzed L.A. from the jump and never looked back. At times, the Lakers attempted to cut into a double-digit deficit, but 19 turnovers prevented them from making the game competitive and they went on the suffer the blowout loss.
Redick is known not to take losses lightly, but Dalton Knecht thinks he was calmer than usual after the disappointing loss, as seen on Spectrum SportsNet:
“I would say compared to [other bad losses], a lot calmer. I think he knows that we got punched in the mouth and we punched them back but they just kept going. So at the end of the day, just gotta watch it and get ready to take criticism and build on it for our next game.”
For a game like this that go out of hand quickly, it is typically easier to flush and move on to the next. Knecht thinks his head coach knows this is a learning experience to build off of to salvage this trip:
“I don’t want to say calmer, I think it’s just more to build off of. I don’t know if it’s calm, it’s just he expected more out of us and we’re just gonna be ready for the next game and move on.”
Typically, the last game of a road trip is when a team lays a dud, but the Lakers clearly did not come out with the right mentality against a shorthanded opponent. Knecht thinks that is what went wrong on Saturday:
“I would just say we came out flat. It took us a while to get going and then when we got going, they just kept it going and didn’t let up. So we’re gonna watch film to build on that and then get ready.”
It’s still early in the season, but the Lakers will want to get back on track quickly to avoid a disaster road trip.
JJ Redick didn’t have much to say after Lakers ‘disappointing’ loss to Hawks
Throughout the early stages of his second season as head coach, JJ Redick is known to show emotions either on the sidelines or in press conference. But after the loss to the Hawks, Redick was a man of few words, clearly frustrated with how the Lakers played.
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