An early change to the rotation involving Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell paid immediate dividends for the Lakers against the Raptors.
Despite bringing back the majority of last season’s team, the Lakers are a work in progress this season. A vastly different offense under a first-time head coach means a figuring-out process will need to take place in the opening weeks.
Part of that includes JJ Redick figuring out his rotations. After finding some success early in the season with his lineups, the Lakers hit a wall and adjustments had to be made.
In Friday’s win in Toronto, Redick greatly altered his rotations. The two areas where the Lakers were hemorrhaging the most points came at the end of the first quarter and the beginning of the second quarter. Along the same lines, D’Angelo Russell was also struggling, often appearing as a guard alongside LeBron James to open second units.
Redick’s change against the Raptors involved swapping Austin Reaves and D’Lo in those lineups, allowing D’Lo to finish first and third quarters alongside Anthony Davis and pairing Austin Reaves and LeBron James to start second and fourth quarters, a pair that has always had lots of chemistry.
“Some of it was trying to get the ball in D’Lo’s hands a little bit more as a creator with AD,” Redick said after the win. “And then the flip side of that with AR and LeBron, those guys have a really good chemistry and play really well together. Super smart players. I felt like that group, at times in the previous five games, have been a little unorganized and we felt like that could get us organized.
“First half, it was phenomenal, the way the two rotations went. We’ll obviously look and see what we could do better in the second half.”
Likely not coincidentally, D’Lo had his best game of the season against the Raptors. He scored 19 points on 7-13 shooting and, for basically the first time this season, closed the game with some clutch shot-making.
John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
While Reaves struggled, that could be partially chalked up to injury. He also has a lot of built-in goodwill alongside LeBron with a long track record of success together.
“It was good,” Reaves said. “It was really good. We were able to generate some shots. Like I said, we had slippage in the second half. But in the first half, the change in the rotation looked good from my perspective.”
The change is far bigger one for D’Lo, who is not used to playing for much of the first quarter. On Friday, he played until the 1:54 mark of the first period to stay in alongside AD before being replaced by Reaves instead of Gabe Vincent, which has been the normal substitution.
“The timing was more something that I’m just not used to, playing a little longer,” Russell said. “Every team I’ve been on, I’ve always been the first guy out and go back, that type of thing. It’s just different. It is what it is. I’m all about coach’s trial and error with whatever he’s doing. I’m fully bought into what’s going on here. AD played well, LeBron was nice, that’s all that matters.”
The sample size will need to be larger before any grand takeaways can be solidified. But the early signs point to both a positive change and, perhaps more importantly, a coach willing to quickly change and adjust.
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