SALT LAKE CITY — Before Luka Doncic even made his Lakers debut, which came in Monday night’s home win against the Utah Jazz, he and Coach JJ Redick already went viral for an interaction between the two.
Redick cleared the air on what really happened.
Late in the fourth quarter of the Lakers’ home victory over the Indiana Pacers on Saturday afternoon, ESPN’s broadcast cameras caught Redick looking at Doncic, who wasn’t available for the game and was wearing street clothes.
A grin came across Redick’s face while he was looking at Doncic before he started to shake his head while turning back toward the court.
Just moments after turning back to the court, the grin quickly vanished from Redick’s face, with the coach appearing to exclaim “stop!”
Many fans thought Redick’s reaction was in disbelief about having Doncic on his team. But speaking before Wednesday’s road game against the Jazz, he made it known he was smiling for another reason.
“Luka said something stupid, which made me laugh,” Redick explained. “It is not the first time. You certainly want to enjoy coaching and you want to enjoy every moment in a game.
“But there are moments when you have to remind yourself to lock in. So that happens. But it was not because I was staring at Luka anticipating coaching him. I think he legitimately said something dumb and I laughed at that.”
What did Doncic say?
“I don’t know – something about him being an elite defender,” Redick responded. “I’m not a duck. I don’t know, something like that.”
NEWEST BIG MAN
Veteran center Alex Len, who signed with the Lakers on Tuesday, was in the team’s rotation on Wednesday, making his Lakers debut in the first quarter.
The 7-foot, 250-pound Len was originally expected to sign with the Indiana Pacers, but instead decided to join the Lakers, where he’ll have the opportunity to be the primary backup center in light of the team rescinding its trade with the Charlotte Hornets for Mark Williams on Saturday.
“Obviously he gives us size and some rim protection,” Redick said of Len. “Where he can really have an impact is as a screener – really has a lot of experience doing the dance.
“But also, if teams do elect to [switch] our pick-and-rolls with Luka, he’s proven to be a really good offensive rebounder and can get rebounds versus smaller players without getting pushed out. I’m excited to have him. Try to keep things simple and he’ll learn the language, but everything we do is stuff he’s done before in his career.”
Hayes stood to get more minutes that he or the team probably anticipated when starting center Jaxson Hayes was ruled out at halftime with what the team called a facial contusion.
VINCENT, FINNEY-SMITH OUT
Guard Gabe Vincent (left knee soreness) and forward Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle soreness) weren’t available on Wednesday, with the duo getting the game off to rest pre-existing ailments.
Vincent had left knee surgery last season, while Finney-Smith has been detailing with ankle issues for the past couple of months.
“Nothing new,” Redick said. “Just just standard maintenance. I think because of some of the lineup stuff and because of the trades, those guys on a restriction for a while, just having to really play a lot for us, just wanted to give those guys an extra day of rest, given what they’ve been dealing with – Gabe for the season and Doe for since we got him.”